In Between Time
by Veranda
Summary: Tai didn't think about the in between time half as much as he thought about the others. It was hard to be the only one who didn't make it home. AU season 2. Romance! Adventure! Comedy! Intrigue! Thanks for 15,000 hits! CH13 is up!
1. And Begins Again

In-Between-Time

chapter one

a/n: So, here's a first chapter two years in the making. I know it's crappy of me to disappear for so long, but seriously, if you could see the draft I was writing back then you'd thank me. I know I have a lot of unfinished work, and some of it I'd like to come back to, but most of it I won't, because I wrote it too long ago, and it's hard to pin down. New work, however, is very likely to appear. Here you have my alternative season two, which is (sadly) lacking in Zero Two characters, but they don't really belong in this place. It's got its fair share of different couples, a bit of Taiora/Sorato tension, some Takari. I'll definitely be showcasing Joe, Izzy, and Mimi (I am absolutely fascinated with her right now) so there should be something for everyone. The ages of the characters are as follows—Tai, Matt, Sora-16; Izzy, Mimi-15; Joe17; TK, Kari-13. Anything in normal font is three years after the end of season one, anything in _italics _is flashing back to the end of season one. Enjoy, and please leave a poor writer a review.

(The usual disclaimer applies.)

* * *

_The trolley lurched in midair tossing the Digidestined violently to one side, some landing on the floor and others sprawling across laps and empty seats, groping for handholds or balance as the vehicle righted itself. That is where the whole disaster began._

_When the deafening scream of torn metal died down and the trolley held steady, Sora picked herself up off the floor, touched her tongue to a sore spot on her lip and tasted blood. _

"_Is everyone okay?" she asked, turning to locate the rest of the Digidestined, but everyone's eyes were fixed on the hole in the side of the trolley—or rather, what was reaching through it. It was an enormous dragon-like claw, three pronged and gnarled grotesquely, the owner of which was hovering outside, wings beating furiously at the air, looking out of place in the pastel blue sky not only because of its monstrous appearance, but because it was not so much black and white as a colorless void, dimming the air around it to shades of almost-gray. The monster let out a cry and the claw scrabbled around the inside of the trolley, reaching and grasping at air, effectively cutting Matt and Tai off from the rest of the group. The limb flailed wildly, connecting sharply with something blocked from view. Sora felt her knees go weak._

_Tai's voice came quietly from somewhere beyond the claw. "It's okay, guys, let's just stay calm. It's all right. Matt, move away from there. Okay, good. No, just hold still now. Is it broken?"_

"_Tai?" Kari called uncertainly, as the long arm strained to reach the other end of the trolley, and the creature's wings beat against the windows._

"_God, Kari, just stay there," Tai called. _

_Sora was already pulling Kari back to the wall where Mimi, white-faced, said, "here," and held out her arms steadily._

_After that, everything happened very quickly. The monster reached for Matt again, and Tai stepped in. Matt started yelling, and the three enormous fingers snatched Tai right off the floor in a tight fist. Izzy lunged forward but Tai yelled at him to stay back, and Izzy froze in place, poised like all the others, waiting for some sort of direction. The fist started pulling back through the ragged hole in the wall and Tai struggled, eyes flashing angrily when several of them started to edge toward him. "Don't move, it's okay," he said firmly, but with an edge of panic. And then, absurdly, as if addressing the monster, "Wait, okay? Just…wait. I…" The beast wrenched its fist free and took off into the sky, bat-like, its wings kicking up a wind that buffeted the trolley, and got smaller and smaller until it disappeared in the distance._

_The trolley car shuddered, lurched, and continued on its way, the world peaceful again, the sun shining through the gaping hole in the wall. There was a long, silent moment, and then Sora ran and stumbled to her knees beside Matt, who was covering his eyes with one arm, the other cradled against his stomach as he slumped against the wall, breathing through his teeth. _

_Somewhere, vaguely, she heard Kari's voice, high pitched and frantic, and Mimi's soothing tone, occasionally faltering but mostly solid. "It's his arm," Joe said suddenly from somewhere above her, and she looked up to see him standing next to TK, whose wide eyes faltered between his big brother and Kari, uncertain of who needed him more. _

_"Go take care of Kari, TK," Sora said, as she edged in closer and reached out a hand to rest lightly on Matt's elbow. "Go on."_

"_We have to go back," Izzy said, somewhere on the other side of the trolley. "Tai's still back there, we have to go back for him."_

"_Great," Joe snapped. "Good plan. Just go ahead and turn this thing around."_

_Izzy sent him a cold look and disappeared into the control room at the front of the trolley, but Matt shook his head. "It's not going to work. He's already gone."_

"_I'll fix it," Izzy called over his shoulder._

"_It's not going to work," Matt repeated, his voice tight and shaking, his arm still covering his eyes. _

_Sora looked down to the end of the trolley where TK had placed his hand on Kari's small shoulder as she curled up in Mimi's arms. Joe sat down heavily on one of the bench seats and dropped his face in his hands. Izzy kept working the controls all through the long trip home, but Matt was right, and the trolley never paused on its way. Not even for the briefest moment._

**

* * *

Three years later… **

In a dark room in Odaiba, Japan, a haggard Izzy Izumi bent over his laptop screen, his face illuminated by the computer's glow, making his features look hollow and ghoulish. He typed furiously, muttering around a pencil that dangled from between his teeth. "Come on…come on…"

The room was a mess. Piles of chicken-scratched papers littered the floor, and one wall was covered with charts of strange symbols and binary code held in place by dozens of multi-colored thumbtacks. But the state of Izzy's room was nothing compared to his own disheveled appearance. He looked as though he hadn't been out of the dark room in weeks, and that wasn't far from the truth. His hair was badly in need of a trim, hanging shaggily around his ears, and his face was pale and drawn. He hardly looked like himself anymore, but then, his appearance was not high on his list of priorities.

Izzy shifted, tucking one leg up onto his chair and stifled a yawn. As he lifted his right hand to his mouth he continued typing with his left, and the muted sound of the keys of the Pineapple laptop continued without even the slightest pause. He was so deep in concentration that when a high pitched series of beeps issued forth from the computer's speakers, he jerked violently and nearly pitched the machine right onto the floor. There was a brief moment of panic, but he caught the sturdy computer and resettled it on his knees, his heart beating painfully in his chest. He took a deep breath and dragged a hand through his hair. "Get a grip, Izumi."

Izzy returned his focus to the screen and discovered that a small, black window had blinked into existence, distinguished only by the white cursor flashing in its upper left-hand corner.

"Well, this is new," Izzy said.

Slowly, white letters appeared in the window, one by one, as the white cursor traveled across the screen. _Preparing connection._

Izzy's stomach turned over. He leaned closer to the screen, shoulders tight with apprehension under his thin white t-shirt. The cursor blinked for a long while and then moved to the next line.

_Connection established._

_Opening gateway._

_Continue?_

Izzy sat for a long time, staring at the screen as the white cursor flashed. He felt a lump forming in his throat, coughed, shook it off. And then he slowly eased himself out from under the laptop, set it on the chair, and turned to reach for the phone.

* * *

Above the flower shop in her apartment, Sora lay comfortably on the couch, one dangling foot keeping time with the radio, her head resting on Matt's thigh as he absently toyed with her bangs. The song ended and another started. Sora watched the way the sun captured specks of dust in the air and turned them into a million points of light. She smiled, lifted her eyes to Matt's, and started to ask him a question, but the phone rang and she forgot what she'd been saying altogether.

* * *

Mimi, wearing black biker shorts that revealed long sculpted legs and with a canvas bag slung over one shoulder, could barely keep from breaking into a skip or a flailing run of total abandonment as she turned the corner onto Kari's street. Outwardly she was a picture of cool composure—all long pink hair and long even strides—but on the inside she was turning cartwheels down the street yelling, "We're going back! We're going back!" 

Almost four years earlier, when they'd fallen into the Digiworld unexpectedly, alone and scared and too young to realize how much danger they were really in, Mimi never could have imagined the day when she'd be bursting to go back, but that day had come, and now they were on their way. She let out a little laugh and shook out her hair so it caught the early morning sunlight.

"We're going back," she whispered to the sky.

* * *

"Maybe I should make some tea," Kari said as she bustled about the room, brushing away invisible specks of lint and straightening the bags of gear she and TK had packed for the third time. "Or cocoa. People like cocoa. It's a good…morale booster. I should at least put on some water, don't you think?" 

"I think that's a great idea," TK said, smiling up at her cheerfully from his seat on the couch. Kari didn't really seem to hear him.

"I really should have bought some soda, at the very least," she continued, leaning down to move the plate of meticulously stacked cookies on the coffee table to the left, to the right, back to the left. "Do you think I made enough cookies? I mean there are seven of us. Oh no! God…is Joe allergic to nuts? I think he is. There are cashews in these cookies, TK! What was I-?"

TK reached up from the couch, grabbed Kari's wrist, and tugged her down beside him. She plopped down heavily, her mouth a little "o" of surprise. "What are you-?"

"There are plenty of cookies, and Joe will probably be too nervous to eat anyways. If he _does_ turn out to be desperately hungry, he can help himself to the fridge full of extremely healthy snacks your mom left us." Kari giggled. TK went on, "Don't worry about soda; I brought a case with me from home. I'll go put on a pot of water. Stay here. Kari…you're doing fine. Everything's perfect."

TK touched her knee once, lightly, and then pushed his tall frame off the couch and disappeared into the kitchen. Kari stared after him for a moment, then relaxed into the soft cushions and closed her eyes. She heard the water turn on and off, the burner light, and moments later the sound of a plate being set down on the coffee table. TK sat back down beside her.

"What time is it?" Kari said.

"Almost ten."

She cracked one eye open and peered at the coffee table, "What the hell is that?"

"It's a radish cake," TK said.

Kari snorted, and TK grinned indulgently. They were both shaking with laughter when the first person knocked on the door. Kari sucked in a surprised breath and looked over at TK. They took a long moment to steady themselves, frozen on the couch, and then TK stood up to get the door. Kari caught the edge of his shirt in her fist.

"Tell me we'll find him," she said. TK smiled.

"We'll find him," he said, and went to the door.

* * *

Mimi came in first, boiling with laughter and energy, hugging Kari like they hadn't seen each other in years and then bounding off to the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea. TK laughed at Kari's satisfied little smile. The tension melted away as Mimi chatted sunshine into every corner of the room, exclaiming over Kari's hair, the weather, the interesting little cake on the table. The doorbell rang, and Matt found himself nearly bowled over by the tight ball of excitement that was Mimi. He hugged her back with a soft, genuine smile, and nodded hello to TK over her shoulder. Izzy bustled in next, and pleasantly astounded looks were exchanged all around at his short, neatly trimmed hair and generally tidy appearance. He blushed and told them to leave it alone, but they could tell he was pleased by their reactions. Sora let herself in quietly a few minutes later and made her way past Matt—subtly pressing a hand at the small of his back—and over to Kari, where they became lost in quiet conversation. Matt stood with TK, listening halfheartedly to his little brother's cheerful ramblings, but mainly just watching Sora—the way her hair barely curled at the ends, the hint of skin just above the button of her jeans, a flash of her wicked little grin. She felt his eyes on her and winked at him, catching him off guard and making TK laugh. 

The room was filled with the buzz of voices and the once-a-year feeling of a family holiday, the smell of freshly baked cookies and occasional bell-like laughter. It was a long while before anyone noticed that Joe wasn't there.

"Maybe he's just late," Sora said uncertainly.

TK straightened from where he was leaning against the couch and checked his watch. "I hope nothing's happened. Was he driving here?"

"He's not coming," came Izzy's voice from the study, where he was working on the Kamiyas' sturdy desktop computer, surrounded by wires and years of research.

"Excuse me?" Matt said.

Izzy appeared in the doorway and crossed his arms over his chest. "He's not coming. I called him and I told him when we were leaving and he said he wasn't coming."

"This has to be a joke," Matt said, his voice low and dangerous.

"Yeah, well, it's not." Izzy went back into the study, and in the quiet living room, they could hear the sound of his fingers on the keys. After a while the typing stopped and he called, "Look, we don't need him, okay? Just…forget him. We'll bring Tai back on our own."

Deflated, Mimi flopped onto the couch, snagged a cookie, and started munching dejectedly. "Well that just…stinks."

The others tried to act like nothing had happened, but the atmosphere had changed, and all the warmth of five minutes ago was replaced with nervous tension. Matt took up pacing the length of the room, and kept it up until Sora caught his hand and held him still, and they stood without looking at each other, fingers intertwined. TK caught Kari eyeing the table suspiciously, as though the cookies were somehow to blame, and it was less funny than he would have expected it to be.

It wasn't long at all before Izzy came out of the study, and five pairs of eyes met his steadily. He took a moment to look around at the remaining Digidestined—Matt and Sora anchoring each other quietly, Mimi with that ever-knowing twinkle in her eyes, Kari with her arms folded over her chest and her lower lip jutting out stubbornly, and TK watching her from across the room as young and innocent as ever. He wondered what they saw when they looked at him.

"All right, campers," he said, and was rewarded by a knowing smirk from Sora. "Get your gear and put on your game faces. It's time to go."

And in spite of the news and the desperate circumstances, in spite of how long it had been and how fully aware they were now of the hard road in front of them, there was a rush of excitement in the Kamiyas' living room; a mad scramble to sort out bags and shove a few cookies into empty pockets—a few subtle glances at the front door—and one by one they moved to stand quietly in the study in front of the computer screen. Izzy, his laptop tucked under one arm, held out his hand over the keyboard, paused, and glanced around quickly. "We ready?"

Sora laughed. "Is that a serious question?"

The white cursor flashed.

_Connection established._

_Opening gateway._

_Continue?_

Izzy took a deep breath, grinned enormously, and punched down the "Enter" key with one gloved finger.

* * *

_At first, before everything changed, there was only the sound of young voices—laughing, yelling, talking quietly—and then beyond the walls of the trolley car, a bell sounding in the distance as some ghost train rushed by. There was a hush as they listened for the huff of steam and the steel-on-steel sound of the train on its tracks, and a reverent look was exchanged between two of the children who knew they'd been there before, in that moment, perhaps in another life or in a dream. The bell faded, and trees and grass bowed in the direction of the sound, and then there was nothing but stillness. _

_This was the split second of in-between-time that Mimi remembered whenever sunlight hit the back of her neck or made her hair warm to the touch, and that Sora fell back into guiltily in quiet moments when she was missing Tai—missing them all, really—in her lofted apartment above the flower shop. It was the place Matt went to whenever he pulled his dusty harmonica out of the bottom drawer and released a few bluesy notes when he was sure no one was listening. TK and Kari talked about the in-between-time only once at a fast food restaurant while splitting an order of fat salty fries and a vanilla shake, but Izzy never could move on and lived it every day until there was nothing else, and the others worried, but they understood—except for Joe, who forced it down to a dark, quiet place in his mind so hard, so fast, that he forgot it had ever happened at all. _

_And Tai? Tai didn't think about the in-between-time half as much as he thought about the others, mainly because he missed them more than he'd ever miss that one moment of peace. He'd trade it in to change what happened afterward. It was hard to be the only one who didn't make it home.

* * *

_

a/n: All right, there you are. I'm working on chapter two, but it'll probably not be up for a couple of weeks. I seriously need to give my classes some attention after the writing binge I just went on. Oh, and for anyone who read my fic "After All," the sequel (formerly a prequel) is in the works. Again. And it's Mimato. Stay tuned. Oh, and please leave me a review. I basically just hover around my computer all day waiting for them. Sad but true. You guys own me.

-Veranda


	2. Curiouser and Curiouser

In-Between-Time

chapter two

a/n: All right, so here we have chapter two. Bit of a TK focus here, so that's fun. The _italics _bits are lines of dialogue between TK and Patamon from Digi-Baby Boom. Oh, and thanks very much to everyone who's reviewed so far! I really appreciate it. (The usual disclaimer applies.) Enjoy!

* * *

There was a flash of bright light and a rushing sensation, almost like falling and flying and being caught in the undertow at the beach, and then, as suddenly as it began, it stopped, and they found themselves standing still. Sora stumbled and Matt caught her arm. Mimi, however, toppled right over and then laughed, blushing lightly. Izzy fought down a wave of nausea, took a quick look around, and immediately saw what both Kari and TK were already staring at, mouths open, eyebrows disappearing into their hairlines. He froze. Mimi, sensing that something was wrong, looked up and gasped. 

"Oh my ears and whiskers," she breathed.

"Whoa," said TK.

"Yeah," said Kari.

Mimi got to her feet slowly, and then turned in a halting circle, her hand covering her mouth.

"Izzy?" Matt said.

"Yeah, Matt?"

"Where the hell are we?"

Izzy laughed in one short burst through his nose and shook his head. "I have no idea."

Matt ran a hand through his hair, leaving it sticking up oddly, and blew out a long, slow breath. "I was afraid you were going to say that."

They were standing at the edge of a field, a forest at their backs, the sky up above, and not a single speck of color anywhere. All of the trees were twisted outrageously, devoid of leaves, thick-trunked and dark. The sun was shining white-hot in the sky, but none of the light seemed to reach the ground, and it was twilight in every direction. The air was bitterly cold, and an occasional wind howled by, rearranging the piles of what looked like static that covered everything in nebulous, shifting heaps. The tufts of tall, sharp grass that sparsely populated the field in front of them dipped and weaved like bouquets of ribbons underwater, glowing starkly white far off into the distance.

Wordlessly, the Digidestined edged closer together. Sora backed into Matt's front and reached behind her to grab his hand. Mimi, feeling panicky, stared hard into the dark woods until she was sure she saw large lumbering shapes dragging themselves slowly between the trees.

"Guys," she whispered, "I know that field looks just downright cheerful, but if I have to stand next to this forest for one more second…"

"I motion that we-," Izzy murmured, staring into the trees.

"Second!" Matt cut in.

"And it passes," Izzy said. "Let's get out of here."

Matt took the lead at a fast walk and Sora jogged to catch up, walking evenly with him up front. Mimi followed close behind, and then TK and Kari. Izzy adjusted his bag on his shoulder, took a deep breath, and brought up the rear.

The wind bit through them, and the ash-like static creaked uncomfortably under the soles of their shoes, but everyone was relieved to be putting some distance between themselves and the forest. Mimi took a deep mauve sweatshirt out of her bag as she walked and tugged it over her head. She pulled her long, soft hair into a low ponytail and tentatively said, "Ah…Izzy?"

"I don't know!" he burst out, and then sighed gustily, shaking his head. "Sorry, Mimi. I didn't mean that. I just…I was sure I had it right. I don't know how this happened."

"Don't sweat it, man," Matt called over his shoulder. "We made it this far. We'll just have to go the rest of the way from here."

"Wherever here is," Izzy muttered.

Just then, the wind died down, and for a moment they could just barely make out a slow, rhythmic sound up ahead. Matt stopped, listening hard.

"Does everybody hear that?" he asked.

"It's a bell," Kari said, eyes closed, head tilted to one side.

"It's horrible," Sora said, shifting uncomfortably as the sound persisted, hollow and tinged with decay. It sounded like it was reaching up from the bottom of a well.

"Guys?" Mimi said.

Picking up on the note of panic in her voice, Matt turned to see Mimi backing slowly away from a clump of the tall white grass as it writhed and stretched, reaching for her.

"Mimi, hold still," Matt warned, but Mimi ignored him and kept going, stumbling into a heap of static-ash and sitting down heavily. The long ribbons of grass flew at her, wrapping around anything they could reach. Mimi shrieked and tried to pull away, kicking up the static so it filled the air, making everyone cough as they rushed forward to untangle her.

"What the hell is going on?" Izzy cried, dodging a few grasping stalks and flipping open a pocketknife.

"Stupid grass is trying to eat me, that's what!" Mimi yelled, tugging a handful of the stuff straight out of the ground and effectively freeing one hand. "Now, either use that thing or give it to me!"

Matt had tackled the majority of the flailing strands to the ground and was trying to hold them as Sora and TK pulled them off of Mimi. Izzy lunged for the base of the plant and started sawing it off at the roots while Kari caught them and held them for him. For a few, panicked minutes it seemed like the plant would replace every stalk Izzy cut off with a new sprout, but soon the white strands dwindled in numbers, lost their strength, and fell limply away from Mimi to flutter to the ground like so many party streamers. No one moved.

"Is it dead?" Kari said finally.

"I think so," Matt said, nudging one long bit of grass gingerly.

"Seems dead," Izzy added.

Mimi, flushed red, hair escaping in wild disarray from her tidy ponytail, flopped onto her back on the hard-packed earth, breathing hard.

"I hate this place," she said.

Sora snorted and offered Mimi a hand up.

"Since when do you have a knife?" Matt asked Izzy, and he started to answer, but whatever he was about to say was drowned out by a deep reverberating roar, so loud that Kari felt it in her teeth. This was accompanied by the sound of trees splintering and three tremors—footsteps. The grass came alive, twisting and growing, whipping about frantically. It flew at them from all directions, reaching out to grab them and hold them so that whatever was coming could…

Matt said the only thing that came to mind.

"Run."

Frantic and without a touch of grace, the Digidestined surged forward, feet flying, and sprinted in the direction of the strange bell that was still tolling in the distance.

"I'm sorry," Izzy said breathlessly. "This is a disaster."

"That's officially the last time you get to apologize for this, Izzy," Sora called over her shoulder. "We're here now, and we'll deal with it. Not your fault."

There was another roar, more earth shattering footsteps. They ran faster.

"I'm glad you feel that way," Izzy said, his bag bouncing against his side as he ran. "I have a feeling I'm _really _not going to want to get blamed for whatever's about to happen."

The bell was getting louder as they got closer, and Sora began to wonder whether they should be running towards it at all. It made her stomach turn over. Goosebumps broke out on her arms, and she threw a look over her shoulder at Kari, who looked decidedly ill. This made Sora even more uncomfortable. Kari was their resident canary in the mine—if she was feeling uneasy, that meant something.

"You okay, Kari?" Sora asked.

"This place is all wrong," Kari said. "It feels…sick."

"What's that up ahead?" TK said suddenly.

Matt squinted into the darkness. He could make out some sort of moving shape, like waving arms. His step faltered and Sora almost ran into his back.

"Don't stop!" she gasped, putting an open palm against his back. "Just run!"

The bell was deafening now. It filled up everything, came from everywhere, got faster and faster until Sora thought she would scream.

With a surprised intake of air, Matt skidded to a halt, and Sora almost yelled at him to keep going, but then she saw what he was looking at and forgot why they were running.

"Holy…" said Mimi.

It was a train crossing—two posts with striped Xs under two flashing lights, the angry bell, and the two wooden halves of the gate opening, closing, opening again.

"I've been here before," TK said.

* * *

_"Hey! I hear a train coming! I bet you we could jump on and ride the caboose all the way back to summer camp!"_

_"I thought I felt something."_

_"Um…maybe it's an invisible train."_

_"Did a train go by?"_

_"If it did, it's the most silentest most invisiblest train ever..."

* * *

_

"I've been here before!" he repeated, and then took of running again. "Come on!"

"TK!" Matt called.

But TK didn't wait, and the others tore after him. They flew down the hill beyond the train crossing and across the small clearing beyond it, the monster in the field momentarily forgotten.

"TK, stop!" Matt yelled, trying to catch up to his brother, but he was already too far ahead.

Some sort of dark structure loomed in the forest ahead, and TK ran right up to it without hesitation, and then finally stopped, looking up and breathing hard. One by one, the others ran up beside him, and soon they were all standing in a breathless knot, staring up at what looked like a giant entryway, cobweb strewn and crumbling, made entirely of enormous toy blocks.

"Primary Village," TK said, his voice tight and soft.

Kari walked up to a large block at the base of the entryway and reached out to brush the dust away, revealing a picture of a teacup done in black and white, "We're not in the wrong dimension at all. We're here. This is the place."

Mimi felt her eyes well up and whirled to beam at Izzy, and Matt reached out to clasp his shoulder. Izzy shifted uncomfortably and blushed.

Sora lost all sense of composure and pushed past Matt, throwing her arms around a surprised Izzy and hugging him tightly.

"You did it," she said, and Izzy realized she was shaking. Tentatively, completely overwhelmed, he raised his arms and hugged her back.

* * *

The inside of Primary Village looked no better than the outside. Some of the block towers had toppled over, lying about in confused heaps. The bouncy ground creaked ominously, as if supported by rusty springs, and the once colorful haven for young Digimon looked old and tired in black and white, peppered with the same strange static they'd seen in the field. It was completely devoid of life. A ghost town. 

Kari leaned down to pick up a small, cracked crib and set it upright, and then straightened and locked eyes with TK, who smiled at her sadly. Sora, who had run back up the hill to check if they were being followed, came calmly through the entryway, and everyone looked at her expectantly.

"I don't know what it was, but it didn't follow us past the train crossing. It's too dark to see, really, but I think it headed back into the woods," she said. There was a collective sigh of relief.

"Well that's good at least," Matt said. "We should probably move on soon, just to be safe, but let's take ten. We might as well rest while we have a chance. I'm going to go keep an eye on the front door."

Matt walked out through the entryway, and Mimi sat down on a large block that had rolled away from the pile. It had a rubber duck on one side and a jack-o-lantern on another. She finger-combed her hair and retied her ponytail. Izzy sat down behind her, his back not quite touching hers, and tucked his legs up under him, pulling out his laptop and setting in on his knees. Mimi took out a bottle of water out of her bag, took a sip, and then handed it over her shoulder to Izzy.

Sora looked around to make sure everyone was settled in, and then quietly followed Matt outside. She found him leaning against the wall of the village, arms crossed over his chest, one knee bent, his foot propped against the wall behind him. He was staring up the hill towards the train crossing, but she doubted whether he was seeing anything that was in front of him.

"Hey you," she said quietly. He jumped and then relaxed when he saw her.

"Hey," he said.

She watched him for a long moment, the way he was holding himself, the firm set of his mouth. "What's wrong?"

He didn't say anything. He just turned to stare up the hill again, crossing his arms a little tighter.

"Don't do that," Sora said. "Tell me what's wrong."

Matt shook his head. "Sora, I don't want to talk to you about this."

"Is it Tai?" she asked.

"Sora-," he started, but she cut him off, walking to stand in front of him, forcing him to look at her.

"You're worried about Tai. Me and Tai."

Slowly, he unfolded his arms and let them fall to his sides, and then nervously shoved them in his pockets. He stared at the ground for a while, and then looked up to talk to her directly. "Tai was my best friend. I'm worried about him; I want to find him and bring him home. But…I can't help being afraid of what's going to happen next. I hate feeling like that. I hate that some small part of me doesn't want to…Sora, _please-_"

Sora quickly closed the distance between them, grabbed him by the ears, and kissed him hard, pushing him backwards into the big, soft building block. She pressed her small, tight body close to his, and they locked together like puzzle pieces. His hands hovered inches from the soft curve of her back for a few surprised seconds, and then he pulled her close, desperately, one hand burying itself deeply in her auburn hair.

"I'm _yours_," she whispered close to his mouth. "Understand?"

Matt didn't say anything. His hand roamed lower and he kissed her thoroughly and for the next short while they both forgot about Tai completely.

* * *

When Matt and Sora wandered back into Primary Village looking mostly cool and unruffled, though perhaps a little flushed, TK spared them a wry glance, and Izzy drawled, "If you're done being somehow turned on by this complete nightmare world, I think we should go that way." 

Izzy pointed at one of the village's many exits.

"What's that way?" Matt asked.

"A better vibe?" Izzy said, and then shrugged.

"Good enough for me."

They moved warily into the cobweb hung wind-tunnel Izzy had indicated, sinking halfway to their knees in static, but slogging forward steadily.

"Are you _kidding _me with this?" Mimi said, jerking free of a sticky clump of web that really could have been made by any kind of strange, colorless monster. "How is this the less creepy route?"

"He's right," Kari said. "Just wait."

Everyone was quiet after that, and less ill at ease. Before long, it looked like they were coming to the end of the long passageway. A few blocks were clogging up the exit, but Matt easily scaled the pile and then stood at the top with Sora close behind him. While Matt was reaching down to offer Mimi a hand, Sora turned to look at the expanse of the Digiworld waiting for them on the other side.

"Oh," she said, and sat down abruptly on the wall of toppled blocks. Matt turned to see what she was looking at, caught a glimpse of what was waiting for them in the distance, and got stuck between several warring emotions. Eventually he gave up and just grinned.

There was a line running along the ground parallel to the wall of Primary Village, about half a mile away, reaching as far left and as far right as they could see. It stretched from the ground straight up into the sky, like an invisible curtain in the air, or some sort of partition. On their side of the line, everything was dead, drenched in static, devoid of light and color and warmth. But there, past the divide?

Technicolor.

"Oh," Mimi sighed. "It's beautiful."

"My brother's out there somewhere," Kari said.

Matt slid down the other side of the block wall and landed lightly on the ground. He reached up for Kari, and then set her on her feet. Izzy handed down his laptop and then jumped down after it, turning to watch out of the corner of his eye as Mimi climbed all the way to the ground slowly, carefully. He smirked. Sora came next, and walked ahead a little ways, hands on her hips. That left TK standing alone on top of the wall, scanning the horizon, eyes taking in the far off reflection of what must have almost seemed like a dream to him—that adventure he'd had once when he was just a baby, really. Back in that beautiful place with his big brother and Patamon—and Tai, who seemed so big back then, but really wasn't any older than TK was now.

TK glanced down and found five pairs of bright expectant eyes looking up at him, strong and steady and only a little bit scared, waiting for him to come down so that they could crash off into the Digital World again.

Off in the distance, the soft pastels of the forest shimmered in the sun, and even though the rules had changed, looking past the colorless void and into that far off stand of trees, TK felt like he was coming home.

"TK?" Matt said.

"I'm ready," TK said, and jumped down to join them.

* * *

"…_Come on, let's go."_

_"Go where?"_

_"Not sure. But I guess we'll know when we get there."

* * *

_

a/n: Chapter three is on the way, and with it comes the introduction of one of our absent Digidestined. Probably. Stay tuned! Oh, and please leave me a review. I live for feedback. Thanks guys.

V


	3. Over the Rainbow

In-Between-Time

chapter three

a/n: So, I'm sitting on my couch, home for Thanksgiving break, in pink moose-print pajamas with tea, a horrible cold, and a massive mound of tissues as my only companions. I've just blown off the world for about five hours (and the two weeks before today, really) to finish up this chapter, and I hope it turns out to be worth the wait. I've been dying to post for days. Oh, and thank you all so much for your reviews! I'm thrilled to see so many returning reviewers. This is Kari's chapter—she sort-of took over once I started writing. _Italics _quotes are Agumon and Tai from The Earthquake of Metalgreymon. Oh, and I keep forgetting to add this: Big shout out to EllaJ.W for beta-ing for me. Thank you! You are amazingly helpful.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, but I'm beginning to suspect that Digimon owns me…

* * *

"Okay, Izzy, you're a genius, so…how do we get to the other side?"

The sun was getting low in the Digital World, and the temperature was dropping with it, but they couldn't go forward, and no one was about to suggest going back the way they came. There had been a few ominous crunches in the direction of Primary Village some time ago, and none of them wanted to see what came out at night in this already dark and unsettling place. The walk to the shimmering wall of air had been quick, but as soon as they reached the strange barrier that separated the colorful forest from the gloomy static fields, their progress came to a grinding halt.

Matt glowered, arms crossed over his chest, inches from the rippling curtain that stood between them and the rest of the Digital World. The wonderfully inviting forest waited just out of their reach, and was likely full of shady hollows and less threatening places to rest for the night. He turned to look at Izzy expectantly, and Izzy rolled his eyes.

"Give it a rest, Matt," TK said as he pushed at the rubbery curtain and watched it mold around his hand and extend outward on the other side. No matter how hard he pushed, he still couldn't break through. "Wow, this is strange."

He was up to his shoulder now, encased in the mostly invisible barrier, reaching toward the forest in the distance. Mimi watched him thoughtfully for a moment, and then grabbed two fistfuls of the curtain and pulled as hard as she could in opposite directions, trying to tear a hole to climb through. Her hands shot apart and she tripped and staggered forward, nearly running her face right into the barrier, but no hole appeared.

"That's annoying," she muttered, embarrassed.

TK eased a foot into the elastic span of air and stepped forward. It didn't tear—it just moved to accommodate him and he pushed farther, now standing halfway on the other side, halfway back in the darkness.

"TK, will you quit messing around?" Matt said, a hint of laughter in his voice.

"No, no, I've got this," TK said, distracted, and in one quick movement, threw himself forward and took another step into the other side. He floundered for a moment, looked as if he might topple over backwards, and then steadied.

"It's like trying to walk out of a balloon," he said, voice strained with the effort, and took another step.

"Yeah, but you _can't _walk out of a balloon," Matt said. TK ignored him.

He was a good three feet into the expanse of green on the other side now, and he had everyone's full attention.

"I've almost…got it…" TK said, his voice muffled. Everyone leaned forward in tense anticipation. TK took another step. Paused. "Just a little…farther…"

He wobbled. "Uh-oh."

Before anyone could leap in to help him, the curtain shivered and then snapped back into its original form, launching TK backwards, tumbling head over heels to land flat on his back at Matt's feet.

"Whoa," TK said, staring up at his big brother with wide, startled eyes. Matt tried to look stern, but his eyes crinkled at the corners, and TK burst out laughing. Matt shook his head in fond exasperation. Sora and Kari's eyes met briefly.

"Maybe if you tried it with a running start?" Mimi suggested.

"Please don't encourage him," Matt said.

Mimi laughed. Izzy lobbed a rock at the barrier and then yelped and ducked when it bounced off and shot back at him.

"Brilliant, man," TK quipped.

"Try clicking your heels, Mimi," Matt said. "Maybe _pink_ slippers are close enough."

"Wrong side of the rainbow," Sora said, gesturing vaguely at their colorless surroundings.

Izzy eyed the barrier suspiciously. "Open sesame?"

Mimi snorted.

"I think I can get through," Kari said softly. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to look at her.

"How?" Sora asked, but Kari was already walking towards the barrier with calm determination, raising one hand to reach out in front of her, palm forward. If any of them had been there to see him years ago, they would have been vividly reminded of Tai as he faced the electric wall in Datamon's pyramid—the narrowed chocolate eyes, the stubborn mouth.

* * *

_"I'll do it."_

_"Are you sure?"_

_"Not really."

* * *

_

Kari didn't pause. She squeezed her eyes shut for a quick moment and a halo of light blinked on all around her like a light bulb.

"Holy crap," TK said.

Two long, purposeful strides later, Kari had reached the curtain in the air, and the others held their breath. The barrier didn't resist. Rather, it melted away from her the way cotton candy does when it encounters a child's small, pink tongue, and she stepped through the oval-shaped opening, and then looked over her shoulder, still alight and said, "What are you waiting for?"

Sora hurried through the opening and then stepped out of the way for the others, who followed quickly. When they had all crossed the barrier they stood staring at Kari. She shook her head as if to clear it and the light went out. The hole in curtain disappeared with a pop. Sora jumped.

"Well…" TK said.

"What was _that?_" Mimi said.

Kari shrugged shyly. The sun was setting, and the forest was alive with vibrant reds and oranges. Kari's eyes were like rubies, all framed in thick dark lashes. She looked around uncertainly. There was a long, uncomfortable silence, and then Mimi clicked her heels together loudly and said, "There's no place like home."

Everyone looked at her oddly.

"Doesn't work from this side either," she said, and shrugged. Someone laughed, and the tension eased up.

"Come on, let's go find someplace to set up camp," Matt said, and turned to walk into the forest. TK winked at Kari and jogged after Matt. Sora and Izzy wandered after them.

Kari hung back and Mimi glanced over at her.

"Neat trick," Mimi said.

Kari smiled, "Thanks."

She walked after the others, and Mimi fell in beside her. As they entered the dark forest, Mimi reached out to hug Kari lightly with one arm.

"Kari, you wanna switch back on? It's unbelievably dark up here," TK called from somewhere up ahead.

Kari just laughed.

* * *

Matt halted the Digidestined in a dark, intimate clearing not too far into the forest, and everyone sank gratefully to the ground, pulling blankets out of their packs, removing their shoes, or rooting around in their pockets for the last of Kari's cookies. Sora and Mimi slipped away for a few minutes to round up some firewood, and before long they were all gathered around a cheerful fire, chatting amongst themselves and waiting for a pot of soup to heat up.

"I hated seeing Primary Village that way," TK said, doodling in the dirt with the end of a stick. "I mean, has anyone thought about what this means for the Digimon?"

"They're mortal," Mimi said immediately. "There's nowhere for them to go to be reborn."

"Do you think they're all waiting somewhere?" Sora asked quietly. "The ones that have died, I mean."

"I'm sure they are," Izzy said. "Their data is likely trapped in limbo somewhere, stored in some cosmic file."

"What's happening here?" Mimi said. "What's causing…all of _that?_"

She gestured back toward Primary Village, and the fire cast the moving shadow of her arm against the trees.

"Some sort of virus, maybe?" Izzy said, thinking aloud. "A corrupt file?"

"We have to fix it," Mimi said evenly.

"Well, that would be ideal," Izzy said, "but it's not like there's a Handbook of Digiworld Maintenance I can refer to."

Matt stirred the soup, "Chapter four—in case of horrific bubble of black-and-white, static-heaped land turning the Digital World into a nightmarish death trap…"

"It was _always _a death trap," Sora muttered.

"Do you think it's spreading?" TK asked.

"Likely," Izzy said.

"Well, then, we'll just have to add that to the list," Mimi said. "Item one—find Tai. Item two—fix Primary Village. Item three…"

She trailed off.

"Bring Tai home," Kari finished.

There was a general sound of approval. Matt dug eight bowls out of his bag; put away two.

"Soup's on," he said, and started passing dinner down the line.

* * *

Kari drifted awake as the sun snuck slowly up over the tree line and trickled down to illuminate the cozy circle of sleeping children. She blinked her eyes open, peered around sleepily, and was greeted by a dozing TK's soft smile and blonde eyelashes just to the right of her and Matt's solid presence to her left. If there was one thing she was sure Tai had never worried about over the past three years it was whether or not his sister was well protected. Just as Tai would have done if their positions had been reversed, Matt had stepped in without hesitation, all grim brotherly concern and unflinching warmth.

Kari smoothed down the stubborn cowlick that was standing out from the back of her head and propped herself up on one elbow. No one looked like they would be waking up any time soon, so she stood up noiselessly—save for the soft whisper of her clothing—and slipped off into the forest, sizing up a few trees thoughtfully until she found one that would serve her purpose. She grasped a low branch and swung up into a crouch, balancing on the balls of her feet, and then took a moment to steady herself before reaching above her and starting to climb. She moved steadily upward, her slight frame fitting easily over, under, and in between branches that accepted her weight with little protest. Finally, with her hand braced against the thin, weaving trunk of the uppermost point of the tree, she eased up to her full height and cleared the canopy, taking in the full 360 degree view of the Digital World.

There was something wrong with Infinity Mountain. The high mountaintop where, years before, Tai had drawn a map of the Digital World that even he couldn't make sense of was surrounded in a dark swirling cloud of the same shifting static they'd encountered in the field. All around the mountain the sun was shining, and the blue sky seemed not to notice the ominous storm jutting up against its cheerful backdrop. It looked almost comically out of place, a hive of sickness in the air, and then lightening flashed somewhere inside and Kari caught a glimpse of a tall, tangled structure at the center of all the chaos—a castle. Suddenly, Kari knew exactly where they were headed.

She didn't know how long she'd been poised there, swaying with the wind, staring at Infinity Mountain when a voice hollering her name from somewhere in the forest pulled her back into reality and she called back distractedly, still gazing off at the horizon. They weren't far from the ocean, she realized, and she turned to take in the view of the clean, early morning sun reflecting off of its impossibly blue surface, longing to get closer and stand on the shore, if only for a moment, before all of the world went dark and they had to fight for every quiet moment.

"You're _where_?"

The voice came from somewhere almost directly beneath her this time. It was Matt.

"Here," she said again, loudly. She could see the top of his blonde head bobbing along far below her.

"Come down!" he yelled. "You're going to fall and kill yourself."

"I'll come down for ice cream," Kari called.

"_Kari-_"

She laughed. "I'm coming."

Taking one last look at Infinity Mountain, Kari focused her determination into a tight knot deep inside of her and held onto it even as she headed back to camp, walking quietly beside Matt, who ruffled her hair fondly on the way.

* * *

"Well, I have to see that," Izzy said, leaping up and cramming things into his backpack at an alarming rate. No one else moved and he paused just long enough to glare around at them. "Come on!"

"Breakfast, Izzy," Mimi said.

"We'll have something on the way," Izzy said, slung his bag over his shoulder and proceeded to fidget, bouncing on the balls of his feet. He looked so comically wired that Matt was tempted to stall just to see if the guy's head would explode.

Kari, however, took pity on him and pulled a sack of energy bars out of her bag. "Here, guys, take one. Let's get going."

Izzy shot her a hugely toothy grin and she smiled, packing up the rest of her things and shouldering her pack. The camp was disassembled in no time, and then they were on the move, Kari walking confidently in the lead.

* * *

The walk out of the forest took just under an hour, and soon they were standing at the base of Infinity Mountain, staring up at the swirling mass of energy at its peak. Izzy was beside himself.

"This is unbelievable! The distorted areas seem to be in strategic positions—first Primary Village, now Infinity Mountain...do you know how hard that castle would be to invade?"

"I have a feeling we're going to find out the hard way," Matt said dryly.

Izzy was not derailed. "This can't be an accident. Something terrible has happened here, and I don't think a Digimon is responsible."

"No," Sora agreed. "It wouldn't serve any Digimon's purpose to destroy Primary Village."

"But if it's not a Digimon-," TK started, but Matt clamped a hand over his mouth and gestured for everyone to stay quiet, nodding up at the stone pathway above them. Two voices became distinguishable, accompanied by the sound of footsteps getting closer and closer as they came down the mountain. Matt let go of TK, and the Digidestined jogged quietly back to the tree line and crouched down, barely breathing, their eyes fixed on the area where the owners of the voices would appear.

Two small creatures came down off of the sharp switchback and paused at the base of the mountain, one leaning back against a large rock and crossing his arms over his chest, the other standing to the side and gesturing expressively as he spoke.

"That's the third time this month! If the little monster gets out again, it'll be our heads."

They were both solid black with long arms, round ears on the sides of their heads and enormous eyes that disappeared when they blinked. They appeared to be Digimon, probably rookies. Izzy had already gotten out his laptop to see what information he could pull up on them.

"No kidding," the other said. "A least he didn't made it out of the castle. You remember last year when the Patamon escaped back on Server? It was total hell until we got him back."

Five heads whipped around to look at TK, who looked momentarily like he was going to be sick, and then lowered his head, his eyes squeezed shut and his jaw working furiously. Matt reached over to lay a large hand on the back of TK's neck and looked back at the pair of Digimon.

"Come on," the first one said, heading off to walk around the mountain. "Let's go relieve the guards before they come looking for us."

"Great," the other said, pushing himself away from the wall and following reluctantly. "Another five hour shift of staring at the forest."

"It's that or staring at that obnoxious Gomamon in a damp basement all day. I'd rather be out in the sun."

The second Digimon snorted, loping after him. "I'll give you that."

And with that, the two disappeared around the edge of the mountain and their footsteps faded shortly after, leaving the Digidestined in shocked silence.

It didn't last long.

"Let's go," TK said, and leapt to his feet.

"What? No!" Matt shot an arm out and tried to grab TK's shirt, but TK dodged and jogged off in the direction of the mountain.

"TK!" Matt yelled, and then caught himself, looked around nervously, and ran after his brother, whispering angrily, "TK! Stop. You're not thinking this through."

The others trailed behind Matt and TK uneasily, trying to decide whether or not they wanted to weigh in and get caught in the crossfire.

"We have to go now!" TK said. "There's no one watching. They don't even know we're back. We need to do this now before we lose our chance."

"We do have the element of surprise," Sora said. "We're the last thing they're expecting."

"The odds just get worse from here on out," Izzy added.

"Matt, it's Gomamon," Kari said.

Mimi crossed her arms over her chest, leveling her stubborn gaze on Matt. "We don't need your permission."

Matt shook his head and laughed. "Okay, let's go. But I want it noted that I think this is a bad idea."

"No one's arguing with you there," Izzy said, and turned to take on the first section of the path at a run.

* * *

They were all out of breath and red in the face by the time they reached the top of the mountain, but they couldn't stop to rest. The guards were right behind them all the way, and their voices drifted up from the path below, making the Digidestined push themselves to move even faster. The ledge continued for a short distance ahead of them and then dead-ended into a wall of the same rubbery air they'd encountered before, and the stretch of walkway they could see beyond it was gloomy, dark, and colorless.

Kari walked purposefully to the front of the group and exploded into a brilliant orb of light. She didn't miss a beat; just walked straight through the barrier and kept on going. The others rushed after her, and as the last of them came through, Kari's light went out and the hole in the barrier snapped shut.

"That's never going to get old," TK said gleefully.

"_Quiet_," Matt hissed.

The path came to an abrupt end and veered to the left, leveling out into an enormous stone platform—the summit of Infinity Mountain. One by one they filed onto the flat space and stared. They were in the eye of the storm, and the swirling chaos around them was impressive to see up close, but not half as impressive as the looming fortress in front of them.

It was massive, and seemed to be made entirely of some shining black stone—onyx or the digital equivalent. It gleamed. The intricately carved towers were beautiful, but terrifying, and seemed occasionally to move, though it may have just been an illusion. There was a moat, naturally, but it was filled with a writhing mess of static that splashed over the edges here and there as if there were monsters living under its surface. The drawbridge was down, and there was no sign of life in any direction.

"Now what?" Mimi whispered.

"We can't just walk in the front door," Sora said, but something in her voice was suggesting exactly that.

"How else are we going to get across the moat?" Mimi asked. "I'm not getting in that mess for anything."

There was a quick exchange of incredulous glances all around.

"We can't really be that crazy," Sora said.

TK grinned.

"Yeah we can," Izzy said.

They took off for the bridge at a dead run, crossing the expanse of stone out front in seconds and then hitting the planks that spanned the moat, their feet pounding against its surface briefly before they flew into the grandly arching entryway to the castle, breath coming fast and echoing off of the walls.

"Here," Kari whispered loudly, ducking into an alcove off to the side. They all veered off and squeezed into the small dark space, listening intently. The castle was quiet. There was no sound of alarmed guards yelling or running in their direction, and they assumed they had crossed the bridge unnoticed.

"I'll check it out," Izzy said quietly, and before anyone could stop him, he was gone. A few long minutes later, he poked his head around the corner looking tense but determined and said, "This way."

They followed him down the hallway and into an enormous circular room that looked to be the central hub of the fortress. It had several entrances framed by tall dark columns and was elegantly hung with intricate black-and-white tapestries reaching from the high ceiling to brush the floor. Kari glanced down, saw herself reflected in the black polished floor, and got the unsettling feeling that she wasn't on solid ground at all, but suspended over a dark void that went on forever. She swallowed hard and didn't look down again.

Izzy led them down a hallway to the right that was lined with closed doors and dim torches until they came to one doorway that was wide open. They all stopped and looked inside.

"I found it open like this," Izzy whispered.

There was a stairway beyond the door, and it led straight down, but it was too dark to see where.

"They said he was in a basement," Sora said.

"There are going to be guards," Mimi added uncertainly.

"We'll take care of them," Matt said. "Come on."

They headed down into the darkness.

There was a door at the bottom of the staircase, and TK reached for the handle, counted to three quietly so the others could hear, and then threw the door open. They burst into the room, ready for a fight, wound up and terrified, hearts beating madly—and then skidded to a halt, staring around in confusion.

It was definitely the right place. A large cage stood in the corner, but it was empty and the door was wide open. A set of keys on a big metal ring was lying next to it on the floor. And beyond the keys, slumped unconscious against the wall, were two more of the small, dark Digimon they'd seen at the base of the mountain.

"I don't understand," Sora said.

Just then there was a tremendous roar from somewhere above them that shook the entire fortress. TK jumped, and several of them ducked instinctively.

"This is not good," Izzy said.

Matt started for the door. "We've got to get out of here."

"What about Gomamon?" Mimi said.

"Looks like he's got it under control. Come on!" Sora grabbed Mimi's arm and dragged her towards the door.

They took the stairs two at a time and sprinted back down the long hallway, Matt in the lead, his legs pumping hard. "We've got to get across that bridge before they realize we're…oh my God."

He stopped abruptly at the entrance to the large, circular room and Izzy slammed right into the back of him, nearly knocking him flat, but Matt hardly noticed. Kari managed to pull up short behind Izzy, but as soon as she saw what Matt was looking at, her knees gave out, and TK barely managed to reach her in time to catch her and hold her upright.

"What are we doing?" Mimi said loudly, running up behind them. "We're going to _die _here if we don't…"

She trailed off with a strangled little squeak and brought a shaking hand up to her mouth. Sora couldn't have made a sound if she tried.

There was a beast of a Digimon filling up the room. It was a mass of shaggy white hair—its long arms dragged on the ground, and its teeth reached well below its chin, but the most horrible thing about it was its eyes. They were solid black and gleamed like the walls around it, dead and empty of life. But that's not what they were looking at.

All they could see was Tai, standing in profile, an exhausted Gomamon clutched protectively in his arms as he glared up at the dead-eyed monster, his hair wild and his feet planted solidly, just as they'd remembered him, but _more _somehow.

Without even realizing what he was doing, Matt yelled Tai's name and then winced as his voice echoed loudly in the enclosed space. Tai froze, and sucked in his breath in an audible gasp, his expression moving from disbelief to utter desperation, to steely calm, and in one slow movement, he turned to see what ghosts he'd find looking back at him, and found six familiar faces instead, solid and alive and _real. _Tai's chest tightened, and he was sure he was feeling the entire spectrum of emotion at once. And the shaggy, white monster raised a long arm and swung at Tai, who didn't even see it coming, and knocked him across the room like a rag doll.

Kari screamed.

* * *

a/n: Reviews are my life. 


	4. Get Up and Gomamon

In-Between-Time

chapter four

a/n: Ta-da! Chapter four is here, and I'm going to flunk out of college. -sigh- I literally just sat down at 11pm to write a paper, whipped out my fic instead, and now it's 8:30am the next morning, and I have a new installment for you. So please leave a review, or I'll be ruining my future for nothing. ;) Quotes in _italics _are from The Crest of Friendship—hands down my favorite Digimon episode of all time. Also, sorry for the short chapter. More is on the way. Enjoy!

Shameless Plug: Check out my new post! "Secrets, Lies, and Pumpkin Pies: A Holiday Interlude." Sequel to "After All." It's lonely and needs reviews.

Soundtrack: "Run" by Snow Patrol, "Songs of Love" by Ben Folds.

Disclaimer: Digimon's not mine, but someday, _some _show will be.

* * *

It really wasn't one of those moments where time slows down and everyone watches—in slow motion, as an opera singer holds out an impossibly high note—as their once-upon-a-time friend and leader flies through the air, and it's like poetry, or ballet, and lovely really…no. It was faster than that, and sudden, and before Tai hit the wall with a pained cry and slumped to the ground, dazed, Sora was already running at the monster, and Matt was already running to Tai. 

Matt could hear Sora yelling indistinctly, and reminded himself firmly that she was strong, and scared the hell out of him even, and she could take care of herself. Still, he peeked over his shoulder once, just to reassure himself, and then dropped into a crouch before Tai, who was being anxiously guarded by a determined Gomamon.

"You okay?" Matt asked the Digimon.

"I am now," Gomamon said, and turned to rest a clawed paw against Tai's leg.

Tai's eyes were squeezed closed tightly, and his forehead was lined with concentration. Matt eased in close to him, instinctively reaching out to lend some support, then pulled back, hesitating. But when it came down to it, the person in front of him was still Tai, no matter how long it had been, and some things never changed.

"Hey, buddy," he said gently, and did let one hand fall against Tai's shoulder, holding him upright carefully.

Tai's eyes came open, and for a moment he looked like he was coming apart, but then a grateful-yet-wicked grin erased all traces of anything else, and Tai said, "You're late."

"Sure," Matt said, "but you knew I'd come."

Matt held out a steady hand, Tai reached out to take hold of it, and Matt pulled him to his feet. They stood like that for a long moment, and then Tai laughed.

"I never doubted you for a second, Matt," he deadpanned.

"Smartass," Matt said, and they both whirled to face the battle at hand.

* * *

"_Tai!"_

"_Matt! You made it. I can't believe you're here."_

"_Yeah, I made it Tai. Hang in there, buddy!"_

"_I never doubted you for a second, Matt. I know it didn't always seem that way."_

"_Thank you, Tai, for believing in me. I'm just sorry I was so late. Tai, you have to know how much our friendship has always meant to me. And I swear nothing will ever come between us again."

* * *

_

As Matt and Tai looked on, Sora, her back to them, stood weaponless, arms spread wide, and blazed up at the monstrous Digimon. It was insane, but neither of them doubted for a moment that she would stop it if she had to, with her bare hands, with all of the fire and strength she had inside of her, with her sheer force of will.

She turned to look over one shoulder at them, and now time _did _slow, and her hair flew out all around her and then settled on her firmly squared shoulders. Matt heard Tai's breath catch in his throat.

"Go!" Sora yelled, and whirled to hold her ground.

Matt turned to face the doorway where the others still stood. "Kari!"

"I'm on it," she said, and sprinted for the entrance, pushing back the darkness with her own white-hot brilliance. TK was close on her heels. Tai stood dumfounded, and Kari sent him a look as she passed him by, her long straight ponytail flying out behind her. Tai swayed on his feet.

Matt reached out to brace him, and the white beast roared. Small, dark Digimon like the guards they'd encountered before began pouring into the room at every entrance.

The enormous white Digimon took a step forward, but Sora didn't budge.

"Just try it," she grated out, her voice furious and shaking.

Mimi was already on the move—her feet flying as she crossed the room, her mouth set in a firm line. She skidded to a near halt, scooping Gomamon up from the floor in one smooth motion, and took off for the front door without missing a step. In the meantime, Izzy threw his weight into one of the ceiling-high tapestries, and with a _pop _it came free of the wall and fluttered to the ground, landing on several guards and throwing them into confusion.

"Get him _out_," Izzy yelled at Matt, and went after the few Digimon who hadn't been trapped under the heavy wall-hanging.

Matt didn't waste a second. He tightened his hold on Tai, who seemed to have lost all ability to speak, and ran for the entrance, dragging Tai after him. After a few clumsy seconds, Tai came out of his startled daze and ran. Matt let go of his arm, but matched his stride, staying close.

Kari already had the barrier open, and Mimi, TK, and Gomamon were on the other side, waiting anxiously.

"Sora and Izzy?" Mimi said.

"They're coming," Matt said, and they waited.

Izzy came first, and he didn't slow down when he crossed the barrier. He just ran on by, and straight down the mountain trail.

"Run!" he yelled, and that was when Sora burst out the door, taking off after him. She didn't look back.

Kari's light abruptly went out, the barrier snapped shut, and they ran. It wasn't long before they heard quick, light footfalls behind them, and an earth-shattering roar.

"Crap," TK said breathlessly.

"What's the plan?" Izzy yelled over his shoulder as he led them around the second switchback.

"We can stand and fight once we get off this mountain," Tai replied instantly. "I know we only have one Digimon, but…we…wait, where's Joe?"

"He's not here," Matt said firmly.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Tai said.

"Where is he?" Gomamon asked, panicked. "Is he okay?"

"This is really not the time!" Sora cut in. "What do we _do_?"

Tai switched gears instantly. "We can lose them in the forest. Matt?"

"No objections here," Matt said.

"Fine," Izzy said, and with a final burst of speed, he hit the hard-packed dirt around the mountain's base and took off for the trees.

They ran, ducking branches and jumping gnarled roots where they poked out of the earth, and once, Sora stumbled, but Matt had her back on her feet before she hit the ground. The group of Digimon crashed through the trees behind them, and it sounded like they were gaining.

"So, we're in the forest…" Izzy yelled.

"I'm thinking!" Tai shot back.

What must have been the shaggy white Digimon roared, and all around them, leaves were rattled right off of their branches.

"Oh, we're so _screwed_," Mimi gasped.

"Hiding tree!" Kari said suddenly.

"Yeah, that'd be great," TK said.

"No, there!" Kari said, veered off to the right, and disappeared into an enormously thick trunk.

The others stopped so abruptly that they nearly all went over like dominoes, and then untangled themselves and scrambled after her. They could feel the white beast's footsteps now in the soles of their feet as he charged through the forest after them, and he was so close…so close…

And just as the last of them leapt into the hiding tree, their pursuers rushed into the space they had occupied only moments before, and there were several long tense minutes as they all stood, quietly gasping for breath inside the deep purple-and-blue paneled column of the tree, white faced and scared. It was a tight fit, but they didn't mind, glad for an excuse to take comfort in proximity. Finally, the sounds of the guards from the palace faded into the distance, and the silence stretched on, until they were all sure they were safe.

And one by one, they went out into the quiet forest, where sunlight streamed down through the trees, and glittered like all was right with the Digital World, even though it wasn't, and a light breeze ruffled their hair. Tai was last coming out of the tree, and he stepped almost shyly into the half circle of his friends, who stood and took in the welcome sight of their sometime leader, a little taller, all lean muscle and tanned skin, the same old pair of goggles hanging around his neck against his dark shirt.

"Hi," he said nervously, and smiled.

Kari was in his arms at once, and holding on for dear life, and Tai placed a hand against the back of her head, messing up her neat ponytail.

"I missed you," Kari said, sounding eight years old again.

Tai just buried his head against her shoulder, and they stood like that for a long time, until Tai regained his composure and pulled gently away, his eyes suspiciously bright.

Kari stepped back, and Tai was nearly knocked off of his feet by a bubble-gum-pink haired blur that leapt onto him, wrapping her legs deftly around his waist.

"Mimi!" he laughed, staggering back a few feet before getting his balance.

She nearly squeezed the life out of him, and then kissed his cheek casually and dropped back to the ground to beam up at him, hands on her hips.

"Stick close this time, will you?" she said lightly.

"I'll consider it," he said.

"Good."

Tai turned to look at the tall blonde boy who was sticking close to his sister's side and shook his head in wonder. "TK, if I didn't know it was you…"

TK smiled. "It's good to see you Tai."

Izzy was standing quietly to the side, trying to disappear, and Tai walked over to stand in front of him, his arms crossed over his chest, his expression warm.

"I assume this was your doing," he said.

But Izzy suddenly looked like he was going to cry, and Tai, startled, uncrossed his arms and took a surprised step forward. "Hey…Izzy…"

"Tai, I'm sorry," Izzy said wearily, scrubbing a hand through his short red hair. "I tried to get here sooner, but it's been _years, _and you were _depending_ on me. I wish I could have come through for you, back on the trolley. We didn't want to leave you behind, but-"

Izzy trailed off at Tai's expression, and then bit his lip. "What?"

Tai just reached out and clasped Izzy's shoulder. "_Thanks_, Izzy."

"Oh," Izzy said, caught off guard, and turned a little red. "Um…you're welcome."

Tai grinned, turned around, and then the grin fell away, replaced by something soft and uncertain. Sora was standing there looking like she didn't know what to do with her hands, her ruby eyes wide and lovely, and Tai forgot his own name. Luckily, Sora wasn't doing much better.

"Hey," Tai managed finally, and then mentally smacked his forehead.

"Hey," Sora said, amazed, and her level stare didn't falter.

And they both felt like they should say something else, or take a step closer—anything to break the electric silence—but they didn't, and someone suggested that they move to a safer location, so they walked, both sneaking curious glances in the other's direction as they left Infinity Mountain far behind.

* * *

a/n: Reviews make my world go 'round. 


	5. Old Reliable

In-Between-Time

Chapter five: Old Reliable

a/n: Okay, Crest of Healing and starchica, this one's for you. You've wondered, you've worried, you've reviewed, and now we're finally catching up with Joe. _Italics _quotes are as follows: Joe and Gomamon from Joe's Battle, and then from The Battle for Earth: Tai, Mimi, Joe, Izzy for the first flashback, Joe, Sora, Mimi for the second. This chapter was extremely difficult to write, because it's way too visual, and prose is limiting, but I feel pretty good about it after staring at it for several panicked hours and drinking a lot of Mountain Dew. Eh. Sorry about the length, but the next chapter really should be much longer. Enjoy!

Soundtrack: "Bleeding Heart Show" by New Pornographers, "Ways and Means" by Snow Patrol, "Jesus Was a Crossmaker" by Rachael Yamagata.

Disclaimer: I am making no money off of this fic, and Joe and his pals are not my property.

* * *

_"They don't call me 'Old Reliable' for nothing."_

_"But they don't."_

_"I'm going to ignore that."_

* * *

Joe Kido sat at his desk in the dark on a Saturday morning and stared at the clock. He had watched as 7:00 am became 8:00 am became 9:00 am, and now it was 9:57 and he had a migraine.

Joe raised a glass of water halfway to his lips and then forgot about it and it hung, suspended there, ready to slip from his fingers and crash onto the floor at any moment. Eventually he set it down, and then glanced again at the clock. 9:58.

There was a bag packed on his bed. He'd pulled it out of a box in the back of his closet the night before, setting aside the sweater vest neatly folded on top of it and then sitting for a long time holding the bag in his unsteady hands. It was a large white shoulder bag with a red cross emblazoned on the front, threadbare in places and mended once by Sora's loving hand in small neat stitches two birthdays ago. She had sewn four small triangles on as well, around the cross in vibrant red.

"It's my crest," he'd said, touched by the gesture, as Sora looked on with a quiet smile.

And now it was filled with first aid supplies and energy bars, a flashlight and a lighter and several books of matches in sealed plastic bags, a compass, bug spray, toilet paper and a pocket knife. And enough Benedryl to last several months. He'd unpacked and repacked twice, but he wasn't sure why he'd bothered. He wasn't going. He'd told Izzy that. God…he never wanted anyone to look at him that way again. 9:59.

He still saw the others pretty regularly. He went to see Matt whenever he played coffee shops, bringing his textbooks along and turning out pages and pages of work as he listened to Matt's heartbreaking voice. And Matt, in straight legged black pants on a tall stool, with his guitar propped carefully against one knee, always nodded to Joe warmly when he saw him come in.

Sometimes Joe sat with Sora, who leaned back in an overstuffed chair on the balcony with a porcelain mug of lemon tea warming her fingers and closed her eyes when Matt played the song he wouldn't admit he'd written for her. But usually he sat at a table by the window, because he liked to watch the people walking by outside, and the way rain ran down the glass in little rivers that came together in ways he could only occasionally predict.

When Kari came in, looking unbelievably small in comfortable sweaters and tight jeans, she always sat across from him at his little table and never said a word. Sometimes she'd buy a mug of cocoa for herself, and sometimes she'd get him one as well, but she never asked. She always just knew what he needed, and he was no longer surprised by her uncanny gift for perception. It just _was_, in the same way that many things just _were_ in his strange, mismatched group of friends.

Izzy was hurting, and TK was laughter and faith, and Mimi was a vision of smooth white skin and a dance under strobe lights and something elemental underneath it all that he'd never be able to understand.

And Tai was gone.

10:00, and Joe almost reached for the phone, almost asked them to wait as he ran for the car and threw his bag in the backseat and raced across town running red lights and taking corners too sharply. Almost.

But in the end he just sat in the dark, statue still, barely breathing, wanting to tear the small red triangles off of his bag so it could just be a cross again.

10:01.

Joe unpacked his bag.

* * *

He noticed the new e-mail later than morning. The little flashing icon on his computer screen caught his attention when he ducked into his room on the way out the front door, and he clicked it absently as he tugged a black sweatshirt over his head, knocking his glasses askew. It was from Izzy, he realized with a jolt, and had been sent …well, before they left, he supposed. He skimmed the short paragraph once, turned to leave, and then changed his mind and read it again, his arms crossed over his chest.

And then he shook his head, crammed his wallet in his back pocket, and walked out the door.

It really was a beautiful day, and Joe bypassed his car and took his bike instead, weaving in between pedestrians on the sidewalk downtown. He stopped for coffee and took his time with it, sitting at a small table outside of the bakery, letting the sun warm up his leather shoes and thinking about…nothing. Thinking about nothing.

The last inch of liquid in the bottom of his cup got cold, and he threw it away on his way back to the counter inside. He bought a hot roll and slipped it into his backpack, and then got back on his bike, pedaling steadily along the road, and then through the park. He crossed a bridge, shifted down and tackled a hill, rode briefly through a shaded area, and then almost went over his handlebars when he spotted Tai kicking a soccer ball around a field off to the right.

It took Joe a long, hysterical moment to realize that the boy wasn't Tai after all—just another big-haired teenager skillfully keeping a ball in the air with a knee here, and then his forehead, his chest. Besides, Tai would be older now. And his hair wasn't quite that shade, now that he thought about it. Still, Joe couldn't take his eyes off of the kid. He never let the ball hit the ground. How did he manage to be right where he had to be every single time? How did he manage to keep that ball in the air?

"Hey!" the kid called suddenly. "You wanna play?"

He shot Joe a friendly, white-toothed grin and caught the soccer ball in one hand.

Joe, startled, just shook his head. The kid shrugged and tossed the ball into the air, and it hung suspended for a moment against the bright backdrop of the sun before it fell and the boy started his balancing act over again on the expanse of neatly trimmed green grass. Joe pedaled quickly away.

He found the spot he'd been looking for, and settled down next to a wide blue lake, letting his bike lie on its side in the grass beside him. He pulled the roll from his backpack and tore off a small piece, tossing it to an already approaching mama duck. He broke off a few smaller pieces for her six yellow ducklings and watched as they fought for the crumbs, and when he ran out of bread he took a homework assignment out of his bag and settled in for the afternoon.

Joe stopped by the library and finished some research. He wandered through the exhibit he'd been meaning to see at the gallery downtown and then went for an early dinner at a fast food restaurant he was secretly addicted to. He ran in to the grocery store to buy a gallon of milk. He picked up his dry-cleaning.

And that was when, as the woman behind the counter handed him his perfectly pressed clothing and a receipt, smiling warmly and chatting about this and that, it all hit him like a physical blow, and he found himself reaching blindly for something to hold on to, gasping for breath, doubling over.

"Are you all right?" the woman was asking. "Sir? Should I call an ambulance?"

But Joe was already pulling himself upright, sprinting for the door, leaping on his bike and pedaling home as fast as he could—running red lights and taking corners too sharply, and wishing he'd taken the car, at least, because he was already late enough.

* * *

_"That's that. We've all got to go back."_

_"But how? How are we supposed to get there?"_

_"The first time we went to the Digital World, our Digivices led us. You guys try it again."_

_"You're coming too, Joe. We're all in this together."_

* * *

Joe dropped his bike at the front door of his apartment complex, left it with one wheel spinning, and took the stairs two at a time. He swore in frustration when his shaking hands couldn't get the key to fit the lock, and then burst into his apartment, tossing his backpack carelessly on the couch and disappeared into his bedroom.

There was the sound of the closet being thrown open and a box being dragged across the floor, and then general chaos as Joe rushed about, repacking his bag for a third time, throwing things in haphazardly, yanking on more sensible shoes, tripping over the hall carpet as he ran back into the living room to hurl the gallon of milk into the fridge and slam the door.

And then he scrambled back into his bedroom to stand, breathless, his hands flat on his computer desk, staring at the screen.

A blinding flash of light from Joe's bedroom lit up the apartment's darkest corners and was visible outside in the gathering dusk. A few people passing by on the street below glanced up, curious, and then went on their way. A nervous kid with a backwards baseball cap stole Joe's bike, but he wasn't going to need it for a long while anyways. He was already gone.

* * *

_Joe,_

_You unbelievable bastard. I was up half the night trying to think of one logical reason why you would refuse to come back with us, but I can't think of a single thing that could stop me from going through that gate. I know it's different for you. I know you've never felt the same about what happened. But I don't believe you have it in you to ignore this, not really. So figure out what an enormous mistake you're making, and then run the program I've attached to this e-mail. It's relatively straightforward. Joe, I swear to God, if you don't come after us…_

_Please, Joe. _

_-Koushiro_

* * *

Joe stood under a dark, starless sky, his white bag over one shoulder, his heart in his throat, and waited for the panic to subside. A tangled forest was at his back, and in front of him, in a hazy field, long ribbon-like grass floated up from the ground, occasionally reaching for him lazily, but mostly just weaving about like seaweed in its bed of static. Joe thought that the stuff would probably wreak havoc with his sinuses, and then laughed, but the sound was swallowed up by the wind.

"This was a very bad idea," Joe said, and almost smiled.

And with that, he tugged once on the strap of his bag, squared his shoulders, and set off in the direction of the bell he could hear ringing in the distance, hoping the others had done the same. He had a long way to go if he was going to close the gap between them. It was time he was on his way.

* * *

_"And besides, I'm going to make darn sure the sun _does_ come up!"_

_"Joe, I didn't know you had it in you!"_

_"What a man!"_

* * *

a/n: Reviewing does the body good. 


	6. Out of the Frying Pan

In-Between-Time

Chapter six: Out of the Frying Pan…

a/n: Hm…okay. So, if anyone's still there, here's a new chapter. I am very very sorry for the wait and the length. Bit of a silent nod to EllaJ.W in here. She'll get it, at least. Hi Ella! Other than that, I hope it's worth the wait.

* * *

At first they walked just to be walking, to put some distance between themselves and the hovering spire of Infinity Mountain, and then Kari quietly declared that she thought they should head for the shore, and that was that. They pointed themselves in the direction of white sand, rolling waves, and the remnants of some telephone booths and spent the better part of the morning (and on into the afternoon) putting one foot steadily in front of the other.

Matt and Tai fell naturally into the lead and into some secret conversation , occasionally laughing or throwing out an elbow good naturedly, but mostly just talking quietly and earnestly, reacquainting themselves with the grudging friendship that got them through it all the first time.

Gomamon and TK walked a good distance behind them, giving them some privacy, TK's long-legged step and Gomamon's rolling gait somehow matching comfortably. TK answered Gomamon's string of questions about his missing partner, filling in the gaps, and every now and then TK would scoop him up and carry him, more for his own benefit than anything else, but Gomamon didn't mind.

Sora gazed at Matt and Tai from over TK's shoulder, barely watching where she walked, a sweet smile on her face, and it eventually annoyed Mimi so much that she spent the next hour trying to get Sora to say something other than, "mm-hmm," smiling wickedly, dancing along on tiptoes, rambling about what a vision Sora would be if she wore something other than peach lip-gloss every once in a while.

Izzy and Kari brought up the silent rear, occasionally bumping elbows, Izzy feeling more at peace than he had in, well, ever, and it had everything to do with the Kamiya siblings. Having Tai up ahead where he belonged and Kari's warm presence beside him kept things balanced. That was the way it was with Kari. She was always just what was needed, and that was part of her particular magic. It must have been a family trait, but if anyone suggested that to Tai he would just laugh.

By the time they broke out of the woods and into the sun it was past the hottest part of the day, but still wonderfully tropical, and they all dropped onto the sand like scattered pebbles. Matt started whipping up something for them to eat, and Mimi peeled off her shirt, stretched out in the sun, and immediately fell asleep. Izzy positioned himself with his back to her and sat blushing faintly, much to everyone's quiet amusement.

It wasn't until some time later, as the sun dipped lower and hung over the ocean, that Tai started talking them through the last three years. Matt handed out six plates of food and kept an extra warm for Mimi, who was snoring prettily in the sand, pink lips parted.

Tai started at the beginning, but left out that split second of in-between-time. He didn't like to talk about it, but they all knew he remembered because it hung in the air whenever he paused to collect himself. He talked about a long flight over tree-tops and then an ocean, arriving on Server, and being hungry and cold and scared, but that much they had all imagined. He talked about long months of imprisonment in one of the dark, infected patches of the Digital World, and Izzy leaned forward in fascination, completely incapable of hiding the gleam in his eyes.

"So it's everywhere?" he asked, and then caught himself and managed to look suitably guilty.

"Everywhere I've been," Tai said. "The dark right next to the light. It's like a disease."

He settled back against their pile of gear, arms behind his head, and told them about dungeons he'd broken out of, running, hiding, getting caught again. Mimi woke up and moved to sit beside Izzy. The sun went down. The stars came out.

"How'd you get away?" Mimi asked breathlessly, hair mauve in the moonlight.

"I had some help from an old friend," Tai said, looking steadily at Sora, and she knew what he meant right away.

"Biyomon!" she gasped. "She's all right?"

It was all a rush of questions after that, and Tai patiently answered them all. He told them about looking up to find Biyomon on the other side of the bars one day—the first friendly face he'd seen in a very long time—and the whirlwind of action that followed. Weeks of careful planning, and then freedom, and hope—things he'd been missing. He talked about traveling with Biyomon for some time, and then finally parting ways when she went off on her own to search for Gabumon. By then Tai was following rumors across Server, looking for the others, trying to make sure they were all safe. Knowing there was someone worlds away doing the same thing for him made it easier to keep pushing on.

He came for Gomamon first, and found a lot more than he'd been looking for. Now everything was different.

From File Island, Palmon was closest. She was being held on Crescent Island, about halfway between their current location and the mainland. They'd all been there, years ago.

"With Whamon," Mimi said, and leaned back thoughtfully on the heels of her hands. She pictured Palmon in the sun, roots to the rich soil, not in a cage, and not in the dark.

Gabumon was back on Server, and free and clear, as far as Tai knew. He and Biyomon were staying close together and close to the ground, or at least that was what Gatomon said. Kari's surprisingly powerful partner had never been caught, especially by Tai. They met up occasionally to wait out a storm or travel together for a day or two, but Tai always woke up to find her gone.

"And Patamon," TK urged.

"In and out of cages," Tai said. "Like me."

"Last you heard?"

"In," Tai said. TK blew out a long breath, nodded.

Tai looked at Izzy, who pretended to be wrapped up in some project on his laptop, but after a few long silent moments he sighed and looked back. "Just tell me, Tai."

"I don't know where Tentomon is. No one does."

Izzy looked back at the screen.

"But we'll find him, okay?" Tai said.

Izzy didn't say anything, but he also didn't move away when Mimi scooted in closer, touching her knee to his, watching him work. Tai let it go, and turned to help Matt clean up.

It was late, much later than they'd intended to stay up, but that's how it goes with friends who lose time. They talk until everything is a murmur, nodding off against pillows and shoulders, and it doesn't matter that they always have tomorrow. It was during this quiet time, as they were all settling in for the night, curling up in the sand under blankets, in twos or threes or alone, eyelids drooping, when Kari sat up very suddenly and said, "Tai, what about Agumon? You didn't mention…"

Tai took the extra blanket Sora was holding out to him, shook it open, and shrugged. "Agumon's gone."

"He…" Matt faltered. "What?"

"He's dead. He died." Tai said, and then looked up to find six very distressed faces staring at him in the firelight. "Guys, it's fine, okay? It's not forever. I'll get him back. Just go to sleep."

And eventually they did, and the fire burned low, but Matt and Tai moved to sit inches from the high-tide line and Matt watched the waves reach for their toes while Tai let his face drop into his hands and talked about the hard parts, and his shoulders shook, but the moon was beautiful that night.

* * *

It happened fast, and they were on their feet, moving into a protective knot, though they didn't remember what had startled them out of their dreams. Mimi tripped backing into them and sat down rather suddenly, and then stayed there, partly because she couldn't think of anything better to do, but mostly because she was scared. There was something black pouring out of the forest like water…no…like an avalanche, rolling, bottle-necking between trees and then bursting onto the sand like pus and spreading, gaining speed.

"What the hell!" Matt yelled, grabbing for his things, scrambling, backpedaling.

"Tai?" Mimi called, her voice hitting a high, frantic note.

"No clue!"

Sora already had Mimi by the arm and was dragging her to her feet, running. They lost half of their supplies, but they hardly noticed what was left behind or where they were going.

"What is it?" TK was yelling.

"Not it!" Kari called back, breathless. "They!"

And she was right, of course. Hundreds of Digimon, small black spheres, were hurtling at them now, covering the sand like dark shifting dunes in the wind.

"What do they want?" This from Tai, who turned to run backwards a few paces and then turned again lightly on the balls of his feet, flying into an effortless sprint.

"I'm going to go out on a limb here and say 'to kill us,'" Matt threw over his shoulder, and would have kept running forever to get away, but the waves were licking at his feet now, and there was nowhere else to go. "What now?"

"We fight," Tai said, eyes narrowed, and turned, using the momentum to swing his bag into the first line of Digimon and scattering them like so many bowling pins, and the others surged forward behind him with a collective yell, kicking and throwing and using whatever they had in their hands to beat them back.

Matt glanced up to see Tai wielding a frying pan like a club with Sora at his back swinging TK's walking stick in wide arches, both of them warriors in some deep part of themselves, and couldn't bear to look away. He heard Kari scream and spun to see TK go down hard, and then he forgot everything else as he fought his way to his brother, who didn't think he needed to be protected anymore, but that really didn't matter. He was vaguely aware of Gomamon cutting a path with his claws, of Mimi's beautiful snarl and white face, of the determined set of Izzy's mouth. He tripped and caught himself, but then they were all over him and his knees hit the sand. His teeth knocked together painfully and he tasted blood. And he couldn't get to TK, he couldn't, he needed to get up, he needed to…

And that was when one high note drowned out all other sound and Gomamon started to glow.

* * *

a/n: Let's all review like it's 1999.


	7. All Together Now

In-Between-Time

Chapter Seven: All Together Now

a/n: Hey! I posted a chapter in under two months! Um….barely. But at least this one hit the page length I was going for. Big shout out to Necessitating Love, while I'm thinking of it. Talk about your loyal reviewers. Oh, and everyone needs to go catch Meet the Robinsons while it's still in theatres. Absolutely brilliant. I'm in love with Wilbur Robinson. In other news: For a good read, visit Bri and Rain's masterpiece. (I've got it linked in my profile, but I can't get it to show up here.) You won't be disappointed. Well, that's all I've got. Enjoy! Oh, and Happy Easter, everyone.

* * *

The light faded, and there was the massive and shaggy-haired Ikkakumon, something in his expression desperately grateful for a moment, and then wicked, and he shook himself all over, settled into his new form, and turned to Tai for instruction. Tai stopped bludgeoning their attackers long enough to look up at Ikkakumon, swiping his forearm across his face in a distracted gesture and leaving a smudge of dirt on his nose. Suddenly, he was tired, exhausted, because he knew this wasn't the end of the fighting—not really. Ikkakumon would win this battle, and they'd all have time to rest, but Tai knew he was just the doorway back to the beginning. A fighting chance is just a chance at more fighting, after all. 

_I should have known the Digital World would never let me go._

"Looks like you've got a bit of a pest problem, Tai," Ikkakumon rumbled.

"You noticed that?" Tai said, and swung the pan hard. The small black Digimon disintegrated on impact.

"You want me to take care of it?" Ikkakumon asked.

Tai straightened, gripped the handle of Matt's heavy frying pan. _When will the fighting stop? When can I just go home? When can I sleep with both eyes closed, get those years back, be-_

He pushed those thoughts away firmly, made a choice, and settled in for the long haul. He still had a job to do. Tai smiled, slow and tired, but ready now.

"You can do anything you want..."

* * *

_"You can be whoever you want…"

* * *

_

"…big guy."

Tai pulled one of their small attackers off of his arm, tossed it aside with a look of disgust and yelled for Sora.

"I'm here," she said, and he turned to find her standing, feet planted, the walking stick clutched in her hands. There was a small cut high on her cheekbone, and the stubborn set of her mouth made his heart ache for the time he'd missed. The big things, sure. Starting high school, birthdays, all those clichéd milestones—but the little things too. Haircuts. Sprained ankles. Those subtle changes that made her the young woman he was looking to now, with a confidence so absolute that it caught him off guard, to safeguard lives he felt responsible for—a gesture that somehow went beyond putting his own life in her hands. He remembered, would always remember, her scrappy young self in yellow, laughing and crying and standing beside him, and he saw now, with no small amount of pain, the person she'd become. But he'd missed the time in between. The day her cheeks stopped looking like round freckled apples and got that exotic, almost haughty sharpness. The first time she wore a skirt to school and blushed when Matt bit his tongue at the lunch table, staring at her, thinking for the first time that maybe they weren't kids anymore. Tai always thought he'd he there for those milestones.

Tai always thought he'd be one of them.

"Get everyone out of here," he said, and felt a little betrayed by his unsteady voice.

"Okay, Tai, but-"

"Sora, get them out of range!"

And she looked like she wanted to argue, eyes narrowed, that trickle of blood on her cheek, but something in his face changed her mind and she sighed, nodded, turned her back to him, and did what he asked.

* * *

Izzy turned to take in the blessedly welcome sight of Ikkakumon and nearly cried with relief. Finally, a break. Finally, something going their way. Thank God for Kari and her strange brand of magic, her deep connection to the Digital World. 

"Kari, how did you—Kari? Kari!"

Something was very wrong. Kari was on her knees, almost completely buried in the swarming Digimon, but she didn't seem to notice. There wasn't a trace of light around her. No sign that she was aware of her surroundings. He couldn't tell from this distance, but he thought she was crying.

"What's wrong?" he called, fighting his way toward her. "Kari, what's-"

"_Joe!_"

Izzy stopped so abruptly that he nearly pitched himself headfirst into the ground.

_Damn this curiosity._

He whirled and followed Tai's wide-eyed line of sight, and there was Joe, standing at the edge of the forest, gasping for breath, wearing a completely impractical white oxford dress shirt, a nice pair of gray slacks…and slim laced athletic shoes with a green stripe up the side.

"Son of a bitch," Izzy said.

Joe was looking at Tai with an unflinching amazement, his blue-black hair disheveled and falling in his eyes, a grin making a brief gleaming appearance on his face. Izzy thought he made a rather heroic figure with his mismatched footwear and his white bag over one shoulder. Joe's glasses slipped from his nose and hit the sand at his feet.

"Tai," he said. Izzy saw the word on his lips, even though he couldn't hear it over the commotion. Tai must have seen it as well, because he tipped Joe a quick nod, his eyes gleaming, and turned to take back the beach.

* * *

The ground was a roiling mess of parasitic Digimon now, deep enough to bury Sora to mid-thigh, but she waded through steadily, sweeping them aside brutally with TK's walking stick, sweat breaking out on her forehead. She saw Izzy up ahead, trying to drag something up from the ground, and her stomach tightened. They were everywhere. They were all around her like bugs, like beetles, and she felt her calm slipping away, felt the first stirrings of panic. That was when she stepped one of their tiny bodies and it exploded into data with a crunch she both felt and heard. Sora screamed and danced backwards, demolishing two more in the process. The last of her composure dissolved. She felt another scream building inside of her, and then Mimi was beside her, a small cool hand resting on Sora's elbow, her hair free from its ponytail, a wry smile on her face. 

"Next time, I'm booking the vacation," Mimi said lightly, but her eyes were grave, searching.

"Sure thing, boss," Sora said, and fought down the sudden urge to cry.

"Let's go," Mimi said firmly, and her hand traveled down to grab Sora's and tug her forward. "Izzy needs help."

* * *

When they reached him, Izzy was struggling to stand a listless and unresponsive Kari on her feet. One of the inky Digimon was clinging to her hair, and Sora brushed it away with a quick, jerky movement, feeling sick. 

"What's wrong with her?" Mimi said.

"I don't—_ungh—_know!" Izzy said, pulling the small Digimon away from Kari's body, getting an arm around her waist. "Help me!"

Sora shot a quick look back at Tai—oblivious, thank God—and got on the other side of Kari.

"Tai wants us out of here," she said.

"What about him?" Izzy said.

Sora rolled her eyes and helped Izzy haul the mercifully tiny Kari back towards the forest. "Oh, you know Tai. He can take care of himself."

Izzy didn't say anything, just stared blankly ahead and kept moving.

* * *

Stumbling and aching all over, kicking the swarm aside without ceremony, they finally reached Joe, who was waiting at the edge of the forest. There was an awkward silence, and then Joe held out his arms and said, "Let me." 

His hands were shaking and he looked completely beside himself with anxiety, but he accepted responsibility for Kari readily.

Izzy and Sora handed her off gently and turned to hold the line, but Mimi stopped in front of Joe and stared at him long and hard. He tried to say something, anything, tried to apologize, but nothing came, so he just busied himself with Kari, trying to make her comfortable.

Mimi crouched down in front of him. "Joe."

"Mimi, can we do this later? I know I let you down. I just-"

"Look, you're here now," she said firmly, and Joe looked up at her, surprised. "That's what matters."

She picked up his glasses and set them back on his face, and then she reached out to take his left hand in her right, gave it an encouraging little squeeze and said, "So, go do your job."

"Mimi-"

"Joe, don't _argue_. Just go."

They stayed like that a little too long, eyes locked over Kari's still form, and then Joe straightened, dropped his bag next to Mimi and took off after Tai and Ikkakumon. He wasn't ready, he'd never be ready, but that wasn't the point. He should have remembered that. What you thought you were capable of wasn't half as important as what you had to do.

Sora watched as Joe flew by, his neatly laced athletic shoes kicking up sand, and that's when she realized that Matt and TK were missing.

* * *

Ikkakumon was ready for him, and lowered his head with a low rumble of welcome, and Joe leapt most of the way into his old perch at a run. He scrabbled aboard, took a moment to stroke Ikkakumon's surprisingly soft fur and then looked down at Tai. "I've got this. Take cover." 

"Good call," Tai said, and ran for the huddled group at the edge of the forest.

"Did you miss me?" Ikkakumon asked.

"I missed you," Joe said softly.

"Let's clean up this mess."

* * *

Tai jogged up to the others and turned to stand between them and the attacking Digimon. He was still clutching the frying pan, and began sending stragglers flying, the pan ringing like a gong. 

"Where the hell is Matt?" he called over his shoulder. No one answered him, and he stopped playing baseball and turned around. "Guys? Where is he? Where's _TK?_"

Sora looked at him with wide terrified eyes, and that told him everything he needed to know.

"They're still in there, aren't they?" Tai dragged a hand through his tangled hair. "Damn it."

He took a slow deep breath, and plunged back into the fray.

Ikkakumon roared.

The beach went up in a flurry of explosions.

And then Sora felt herself waking up, felt the bark of TK's walking stick digging painfully into her hands, felt the ground shaking.

"_Keep them here!_" she yelled at Mimi, and went after Tai.

* * *

Sora felt less like she'd stumbled into a war zone and more like she was standing in the middle of a fireworks display. There was the falling whistle and whine of torpedoes, the booming explosions, and all around her, glittering falls of data as the horde thinned. She screamed for Tai, but her voice was swallowed up. Something was crawling up her leg, and then she felt teeth sinking into her side. She yelled and swatted it away, but then there was another, then three, five. She fought down a rising wave of panic and pressed forward. She was about to call for Tai again when her shin bumped against something soft. A leg. 

"Oh, Jesus," she said, and dropped to her knees, grabbing handfuls of the small Digimon and hurling them away. "Be okay, be okay, be okay."

It was TK. He had curled up and tucked himself most of the way underneath a fall of driftwood, arms shielding his head. She gently pulled one of his arms away from his face, her heart thudding painfully in her chest, and when TK opened his eyes she nearly cried with relief.

"Hi honey," she said, and brushed his hair back from his forehead, knowing she'd never get away with such a motherly gesture under normal circumstances. "You okay?"

"I'm good," he croaked. "How are you?"

Sora laughed.

"Come on," she said. "Let's get you out of here."

* * *

When it was over and the last flurries of digital snow had fallen up and cleared the air, Joe lifted an exhausted Gomamon in his arms and carried him to where the others were waiting, TK kneeling at Kari's side, Izzy and Mimi like a matched set, standing quietly, and Sora, her arms wrapped protectively around herself, looking at something over Joe's shoulder and finally, wearily, bursting into tears. He turned, alarmed, and then he found himself laughing, overcome with relief. They were all alive, all safe, all together. Matt and Tai were coming up behind him, both a little worse for wear, but Matt was smiling faintly, and stole a glance at Tai, who grinned back at him, and Joe was reminded of so many quiet moments, back when they were all a little younger and Matt and Tai seemed to know something the others couldn't even begin to guess at. 

Then he realized that Kari was sitting up with TK's help and blinking around in bewilderment, and he forgot all about Matt and Tai, rushing forward to fuss over her, but careful not to jostle Gomamon, who was long asleep against his chest.

* * *

Tai held back, suddenly unsure, and watched with mild discomfort as Sora opened her arms to Matt, who went to her gratefully and buried his head against her shoulder. Sora's hand stroked the back of his neck and Tai looked away. His eyes rested for a moment on Mimi, who was talking quietly to Izzy. Izzy shook his head and looked like he was trying not to grin, but lost that battle when Mimi punched him in the arm lightly and then tossed her hair over her shoulder in an effortlessly feminine gesture. Izzy blushed. 

To the left and farther away, Joe shifted his weight, and Tai caught a glimpse of TK leaning forward to touch his forehead to Kari's, his eyes closed tight, and then pulling back, but Joe shifted again and they were lost to him entirely. It didn't matter. He'd seen enough to know that they'd all come out okay.

But then he realized he was standing in the middle of the beach watching them all from a safe distance, and not for the last time, realized how much everything had changed. The sudden feeling of loneliness, the ache for the past, the absolute and mindless regret, were almost worse than the years of not knowing, and for a moment he just wanted to turn and walk away.

And that was when Matt and Sora disentangled themselves from each other and turned to find him, looking like they understood and wanted him anyway, and Sora held out her hand. Some part of Tai wanted to run, but he crossed the distance, let Matt ruffle his hair and Sora hug him so hard he could barely breathe, and he almost forgot that he really wasn't one of them.

He used to be, but that was a long time ago.

* * *

"I'm fine, TK, stop fussing," Kari was saying, but her voice was light and cheerful, and she brushed away several concerned hands and got herself to her feet. "I just overdid it, that's all." 

TK and Tai exchanged not-so-subtle glances and Kari rolled her eyes.

"I'm serious, boys. I'm fine."

"What happened?" Sora asked. She was barely tolerating Joe's fussing over the cut on her cheek, and the look she gave him when he whipped out a band-aid to cover it with stopped him in his tracks. He tucked it away meekly and smiled.

Kari shrugged, suddenly shy. "I was trying to boost Gomamon's energy a bit. Help him Digivolve."

The small aquatic Digimon was still out, and had been passed on to Tai's care so that Joe could mother hen everyone within an inch of their lives.

"And then TK got hurt, so I was protecting him." Kari looked embarrassed now. "And then Matt…I guess it was just too much."

"What do you mean, you were protecting him?" Izzy asked eagerly, and Mimi sent him an exasperated look that went completely unnoticed.

Kari shrugged. "I was pushing them back. Making a bubble."

Everyone stared at the admittedly unscathed TK and then back at Kari.

"Can we talk about something else?" she said softly.

"How about this," Joe ventured. "What now?"

"Now we save the rest of our Digimon," TK said, and there were nods and sounds of agreement all around.

"Who's next?" Sora asked.

"Palmon." This from Mimi, who was alive with anticipation. "Crescent Island."

"But how do we get there?" Joe asked, ever the optimist. "I don't think Gomamon's in any kind of shape to-"

"Just leave that to me," Tai said, and there was a certain familiar gleam in his eyes.

"Oh God, please tell me it's not a raft," Matt said. "We've had nothing but bad luck with rafts."

"It's not a raft," Tai said, and turned to walk away from them, not even checking to make sure they would follow.

"Is it surfboards?" Matt called after him. "I seem to remember surfboards being _another _of your brilliant plans."

"Matt, just shut up and come with me," Tai said.

Matt grinned and did as he was told.

* * *

a/n: A review is worth a thousand words. 


	8. On the Moon

In-Between-Time

Chapter Eight: On the Moon

a/n: Sorry sorry sorry! Oh boy. I'm going to finish it, I swear. Um…_italics _quotes are both Sora speaking first, and then Tai. The first one is from _The Prisoner of the Pyramid, _and I cannot figure out for the life of me what episode the second one is from (_Under Pressure,_ maybe?) but if anyone could tell me, I'd really appreciate it. The Red Hot Chili Peppers own the lyrics I used below. Oh, also, there's a pretty blatant Card Captor Sakura homage in there, if there are any fans in the crowd. Other than that, if you're not too annoyed by the 2.5 month wait, I'd love to hear what you thought, so drop me a review, if you don't mind. And thanks so much to all of my reviewers so far. You're the reason I find the time for this, even if it's only an hour in the morning before I go to work. Thanks.

* * *

_Alone inside my forest room_

_And it's storming_

_I never thought I'd be in bloom_

_But this is where I start_

-Stadium Arcadium

* * *

"You have got to be kidding me." 

"Oh, come on Joe, lighten up."

"No. No, Tai! I am _not _getting anywhere _near_ that thing!"

The Digidestined were standing in a long sprawling line on the shore, staring out at the ocean, and there, beyond the breaking surf, some great leviathan burst out of the water, unfurled impossibly huge, webbed wings and beat them once, twice, gliding just above the surface of the water, effortlessly airborne. Salty rivers trailed from it in glittering ribbons, and the sun caught there, painting lavenders and blues, magentas and lighter roses. Kari gasped, and the Digimon folded its wings, streamlined, and dove. The splash was tremendous.

"Oh, he's so _beautiful_," Mimi sighed, and latched onto Joe's arm. "Isn't he beautiful, Joe?"

Joe winced. Mimi did an excited little dance.

Joe didn't think beautiful was _quite _the word he'd use to describe the giant fish Tai apparently expected him to _ride on back of. _All he knew for sure was this—Tai had gone insane. Too many years in the Digital World, man. There was _no way_ he was going to be subjected to God only knew how many hours of terror and seasickness and—

The Digimon reappeared, closer now, like some strange and lovely flying whale, and they could see more clearly the intricate webbing of its seafoam and blue scales, its large liquid eyes, its strong muscled tail with a full and tangled length of leafy fins. This time it leapt in a clean arc, trailing a perfect half moon of seawater, and for a moment it hung there, an unexpected rainbow on a cloudless day.

Kari laughed, a sound that bubbled up out of her unbidden, and TK watched her with a strange look on his face, but Joe's eyes were fixed, perhaps a little wide and frantic, on the spot where the large Digimon had disappeared.

"No," he said.

Tai grinned. "Oh, _yes._"

* * *

If there was a perfect way to travel, Tai thought blissfully, this was it. Tucked in close to the wide shoulders of a powerful creature like Levimon, feeling the working muscles just beneath his scales, moving in time with the rhythmic beating of his wings, swimming through the air, flying across the sea—it was a new ecstasy and a homecoming for the Digidestined, recalling days not so long ago, bent low over Kabuterimon's back, held fast in Angemon's arms. It brought home the humbling knowledge that those powerful beings had held them in the palms of their hands and kept them safe—had carried them. 

The large iridescent scales of Levimon's back were smooth and warm with the heat of mid-afternoon and several of his grateful passengers spread out and succumbed to sleep the way people often do on long car trips or plane rides, lulled by the rushing wind and the distant sounds of the ocean. It was one of those rare times of peace and unqualified restfulness that ordinary kids take for granted—days by the creek racing rose-hips in the eddying water, playing tornado and spinning, spinning until the world spins on its own as you sprawl in the grass and stare up at the ever-widening sky. For some kids, summer camp is just summer camp and belly laughs are a part of life, but these kids haven't been kids in a long time. They'll take all the lazy early-morning giggles, chocolate chip pancakes, and games of freeze-tag they can get.

Tai peeled off his shirt in one smooth, unselfconscious motion and stretched out on his back, closing his eyes so his long dark lashes cast shadows on his cheeks and the sun highlighted the rich golden undertones of his skin and Mimi and Sora stared at him unabashedly until they caught each other at it and had a good long laugh, holding their sides until they were reduced to hiccupping chuckles. The apples of Mimi's white cheeks were deeply pink and her sharp canines flashed when she grinned. She really was lovely, and Sora envied her easy grace, oblivious to her own golden beauty—her softly tapered fall of red-orange hair and the long athletic body that was made for this life, here in the Digital World.

Matt handed around eight strange fruits that he had picked on File Island and then bit into his own, finding the inside vividly red and not at all unpleasant. He was going for a second bite when Joe let out a forlorn sigh and said, "I don't think I can eat this."

Matt paused and lowered the fruit. "No?"

"Well…" Joe hesitated. "What is it?"

"I dunno," Matt said. "Some kind of fruit."

"Yeah, but what's it called?"

"I don't _know_, Joe, I just picked-"

"It's a Goraberry," Izzy said.

Matt and Joe both turned to look at Izzy, who didn't bother glancing up from his computer screen.

"Huh?" said Matt.

"A Goraberry," he repeated, still typing. "Tentomon loves the things."

"Really?" said Joe.

"Really."

"Goraberry," Joe said, and took a bite. He chewed slowly and thoughtfully, oblivious to Matt's incredulous stare, and apparently he could find no test that the Goraberry didn't pass and went to work on the rest of it, all suspicion forgotten.

Matt peered round at Izzy, and Izzy ignored him as long as he could (not long at all, really) and then sighed and said, "_What, _Matt?"

"Goraberry?" Matt said, and smirked.

"Well, he's eating it, isn't he?" Izzy said, flustered. "Now leave me alone. Hey, Joe! How'd you get through that barrier, anyway?"

"Well, after I walked across the—"

"Whoa!" TK said, and shot to his feet.

"I'll just tell you later," Joe muttered.

TK hurried to stand between Levimon's ears. "Guys!"

"Oh God, here we go," Mimi said dispassionately, getting up and going to join TK in the onrushing wind. "What the hell's the matter now? Flesh eating seagulls? Swirling vortex of—oh."

"Killer storm," TK said.

"Yeah," said Mimi.

TK stood almost a foot taller than Mimi, long and slim with his light blonde hair uncovered for once. His hat was shoved into his back pocket to save it from being lost to the ocean, and his big blue eyes looked wide and naive without the white brim pushed down over them.

"Tai, do you still have that—" he started, but Tai was already beside him, peering through the lens of his pocket telescope.

"Right," TK muttered. Mimi laughed.

"Oh boy," Tai said.

"How bad?"

Tai tossed the telescope to TK, who caught it deftly. "See for yourself," he said.

TK stared silently off into the distance for a long while, and then lowered the telescope and handed it back to Tai.

"Well?" Mimi said, practically humming with impatience.

"We're in trouble," TK said.

And they were.

* * *

"It knew!" Mimi bellowed miserably over the roar of the storm. "I don't know how, but it _knew!_" 

"What knew what?" Izzy yelled back.

"The _storm!_ It _came after us!_" Her voice was high and hysterical now, and she swiped her hand across her face, trying to stop the water running into her eyes, but the rain was coming in sheets, and she let out a frustrated sob. "It's not _normal_, the way these things follow us!"

No one bothered to argue with her; she was right. The storm had started as a dark kernel on the horizon, but it grew impossibly fast, boiling and expanding until it rushed at them, rolling over itself, hurling itself forward as they watched with building horror. The wind hit them with almost solid force, and they huddled close together in the smooth dip of Levimon's back as the sky grew dark in the middle of the day, the clouds ripped open, and the rain poured down. Lightning leapt through the air, illuminating their wet faces, and they stared around at each other with wide, scared eyes until Levimon hit a pocket of air and the sudden drop startled screams out of no small number of them.

"Where are you going?" Sora yelled suddenly, and the others whipped around to see Tai getting carefully to his feet.

"It's fine, I'll be right back," he yelled back.

"Sit _down _Tai, you're going to get yourself _killed!"_

"It's _fine_!" he repeated, and when Sora made to go after him he leapt forward, arms outstretched. "No don't!"

Their eyes locked and they stared at each other, hair streaming with water and plastered to their faces, chests heaving. A galloping roll of thunder erupted and Sora ducked her head, breaking the contact. Tai spun and ran sure-footedly up to the flat plane of Levimon's head, the flashing lightning revealing his progress like a stop-motion film, and then, after a long, tense stretch of darkness, they saw his silhouette kneeling close to Levimon's ear, saying something that was lost to the storm.

The deep rumble in Levimon's chest transferred through his skin as he spoke, and they caught an occasional word.

"…make it…too late to go…File…"

The wind buffeted them and caught in Levimon's finlike wings and there was another jolt that nearly tossed them all over the side. A sheet of water rushed across his back and the Digidestined came up sputtering.

Tai's voice came to them on the wind now and they strained to hear him.

"…more of this we can take! You…"

A low, building roar of thunder.

"…need to dive! Leave us somewhere and…"

And that was when Kari, by far the smallest of them all, was caught up in the tide of water along Levimon's scales and, reaching out one hand desperately, disappeared over the edge of their airborne island and plummeted towards the ocean below.

* * *

Sora let out a high, desperate scream, and Tai whirled to see them all staring with stricken faces at the spot where Kari had disappeared. He experienced a new kind of anguish, understanding for the first time what it must feel like to be a parent, and then took off, scrambling toward the place where they all had huddled together, oblivious to the rain and the cold. 

They could still save her, they just had to hurry, they could still save her if—

"Joe!" he bellowed, skidding to his knees next to TK and clapping a steadying hand onto the younger boy's shoulder.

"I'm on it," Joe said, and he scooped the willing Gomamon against his chest and took a running leap off of Levimon's back. The high whine of Digivolution joined the cacophony of the storm and a flash of light that had nothing to do with lightning lit up the ocean like daylight.

"He's crazy!" Mimi said, hurtling to the edge and peering down into the darkness as the rain rushed past her.

There was a sort of pulse in the air and a hot shockwave rode up from the ocean on the heels of the shining black shape of Joe's crest.

"Look!" Sora said, and Mimi turned away from the place where the bright cross had been and followed Sora's point. There, in the last fading light of the crest, she spotted a dark crescent moon on the water. For a moment, she didn't understand what she was looking at, and then it came clear. Crescent Island. And there, streaking towards it, something that might have been a large turtle or…

"Zudomon!"

Tai turned and scrambled back to Levimon's head. "Do you see it?"

"I see it," Levimon said, and Mimi felt her teeth rattle, but soon everything was erased from her mind except for the absolute knowledge that she was going to die as Levimon tucked his wings in close, pointed himself at the new moon on the water, and went into what was little better than a guided freefall.

Mimi closed her eyes against the painful sting of the rain, against the island's alarmingly rapid growth below them, against the unsettling feeling that she was slipping—she closed her eyes, held on so tight she thought her fingers would snap, and stubbornly refused to scream. Her stomach was floating somewhere between her ears now, and this first drop on the roller coaster from hell was _never _going to end, oh she was going to throw up—and then a lurch and a sudden stop like a parachute had opened and they were floating. Mimi opened her eyes.

Levimon's impressive wings were unfurled and spread in the wind, all intricate webs and blue and teal patterns, and he guided them gently on those wings, down to the beach, to land and collapse in a blinding flash of light. There was a heart stopping moment when Mimi realized she was falling, and then she hit the sand with a jarring thud, the others landing all around her like a few more raindrops in the storm. Tai was crawling over to pick up what looked like a small blue fish-bird from the sand and hold it at arms length. "Doing okay, pal?"

"We made it?"

"Free and clear," Tai said, and got carefully to his feet.

The Digimon took in Tai's fixed line of sight and the grim set of his mouth. "What about the two we lost?"

"Any minute now," Tai said.

"I'm Fishmon, by the way," the fish-bird said.

"Of course you are," Tai said, and smiled.

TK stepped up beside Tai and stood quietly with the waves licking at his knees. Further up the beach, the others were picking themselves up with a quiet chorus of groans and disgusted sighs as they looked themselves over, wet and cold and unable to do a thing about it as the rain was still coming down hard and the wind was buffeting them from all sides, bending the trees behind them one way and then the other. They came one by one to join Tai and TK, arms crossed over their chests or hugging themselves feebly, trying for some degree of warmth. And then a dim shape appeared on the stormy water and resolved itself into Zudomon's wise, friendly face. He came to them through the rain with two waving figures perched on his back, remarkably small against the ocean backdrop. Tai wondered, not for the first time, what made them so important in a world like this—a world of giants—where they could be plucked up from the sand and set down on the moon.

* * *

"_It makes us seem so small and insignificant. Like nothing we do really matters."_

_"Of course it matters. We can't take the chance that it doesn't."  
_

* * *

"Thanks man," Tai said, reaching out to clasp Joe's hand briefly before turning a grateful look on Gomamon and starting to speak, but the small Digimon silenced him with a solemn gesture. 

"This really isn't a good time for autographs, Tai," and then, in a stage whisper, "We'll talk later."

Tai snorted and turned to look for Kari, who was just being released from a fierce hug from Mimi. She shot him a meek little smile and shrugged her petite shoulders.

"Whoops," she said.

Tai's mouth dropped open of its own accord and Sora hid a smile behind her hand as he cast about for an appropriate response, completely at a loss. For a moment Sora was sure he was going to start yelling, but bluster went out of him and he let out a stressed, humorless laugh.

"You're a pain in the ass, Kari," he said good-naturedly.

"Must be a family trait," she said, and this time Sora laughed outright, feeling the last of the fear in her wash away in the pouring rain.

* * *

There was a round of fond goodbyes and sincere thank-yous as Tai released the tired but satisfied Fishmon into the rough water. He dove almost immediately, and after a moment, appeared in a neat leap some distance out, waving once, and then was gone. They all watched the dark water for a moment, and then Tai said, "Come on, let's get out of this storm," and they went, turning to address the tall tangled rainforest at the top of the beach. 

Mimi twisted her wet hair into a tight knot at the nape of her neck as they walked and it looked like a small pink rose, dark with water and secured with a green band. As soon as they had ducked under the dark canopy of the forest and out of the rain she stripped off her drenched sweatshirt and rung it out so that water dappled the relatively dry and lush forest floor. Matt sneezed.

"Okay," said Tai. "Ah…we made it. So that's good."

Joe, who had been digging forlornly through his bag of mostly ruined supplies, sent him a reproachful look and then set about ignoring him.

Tai sighed. "Fine, it was a disaster, but we're here now. And so is Palmon. So what we have to decide is this: how much longer are we planning on making her wait?"

There was an uncomfortable silence, and several of them stopped messing with their hair and clothes and stood up a little straighter. Mimi knotted her sweatshirt low around her hips and crossed her bare arms over her chest.

"Anyone need a break?" Tai said.

No one said anything.

"Okay, let's go."

* * *

"_After all we've been through, he can't possibly be thinking of going."_

"_Okay, let's go."_

* * *

It was warmer in the densely packed jungle, and dark in a quiet, comforting way that calmed frayed nerves and racing hearts. Steam rose lazily from their damp clothes and for a long time the only sounds were those of their feet on dry leaves. The storm seemed very far away now as they parted hanging vines like waterfalls and passed by enormous mauve flowers that blossomed in beds of tree roots. Light filtered down to them in some places, and it was while they were passing through one of these thick, lazy rays that Mimi fell into step beside Tai and thanked him quietly, resting a hand on his elbow for a moment and then letting it fall away. 

"Hey, hold up, guys," TK said from somewhere at the back of the group.

Kari had stopped abruptly, her head cocked to the side like she was listening to a conversation in the next room. She stood that way for a moment and then turned a few degrees to her left. This seemed to work a lot better for her, because she immediately took off in this new direction on her own, getting a good ways into the densely packed undergrowth before stopping and, almost as an afterthought, calling, "This way," over her shoulder before continuing on her way.

"Bossy," said TK.

"I know, right?" said Mimi, but she followed Kari into the darkness. They all did.

* * *

The forest was changing. At first it was just a feeling—the sort of uneasiness that makes people look back over shoulders and walk a little faster. The sleepy, dreamlike feel of the woods was falling away like dried mud on heavy work boots, and they all felt it now as they walked into the dying heart of Crescent Island. The flowers were shriveled on their stalks, and the darkness neared absolute—no falls of light here, only nighttime. Tangled vines snatched and grabbed at them as they tried to pass, and TK pushed them away from Kari, whose mind was elsewhere, focused somewhere up ahead. 

"Kari, man," TK was saying. "I don't know how you do it. We're having a perfectly enjoyable stroll through the woods, and you manage to find the creepiest spot on the entire island. You're like a basset hound for the weird and disturbing."

Kari gave no sign of having heard him—just led them to the edge of a large clearing and stopped as the others filed up behind her.

"Yikes," said Matt.

There was a massive tree centered in the clearing, and nothing grew within thirty feet of it, but its sickly black branches reached out to connect with the rest of the canopy like polluted veins. Gray leaves clung wet and crumpled to the branches, and littered the ground like moth wings and mummy skin.

And there, suspended from the very tip of one sagging branch was what looked like an enormous drop of murky water, or possibly some kind of egg sac quivering like it wanted to either hatch or maybe fall and splatter on the bed of leaves, leaving the brittle arm of the tree jittering up and down, but it was so _huge_—impossible that it could be a drop of water, why it was almost large enough to hold…large enough to…

A low, anguished sound came from Mimi and she pushed past Matt and Sora to run beneath the branch and stand, her face upturned, arms reaching upward, straining to receive the dark lengthening teardrop that was so long so far out of her reach.

"_Palmon_," she whispered, and behind her, TK and Kari's eyes met in a moment of perfect clarity.

"Clap on, Kari," TK said softly, and clapped twice for good measure, the clear sound ringing out in the silence.

"TK, don't be an ass," Kari said, and lit up like a Christmas tree.


	9. You Lose Some

In-Between-Time

Chapter Nine: You Lose Some

a/n: This episode of IBT was brought to you by three hours of sleep, two glasses of peach chardonnay, and one very nice PM from Rayana Wolfer reminding me that people actually want to know what happens. (Thank you!) Quotes in _italics _are all Mimi from the first scene of Playing Games, except for the one addressed to Mimi, which is Palmon, and from the same scene. Oh, and guys, thank you _thank you_ for 100 reviews. I guess it's not much, but it's a bit of a milestone for me.

* * *

Kari—made almost entirely of golden light—left TK now to walk into the clearing, and he wondered…if he tried, would he be able to touch her at all? She walked past Mimi, unmindful of the paste of leaves underfoot and the way the branches _leaned _down to meet her, went straight to the thick and knotted trunk and pressed both of her palms against it. Pressed hard, like she wanted to push her way through, to get deep inside the sickly core of Crescent Island. And then it changed. Just for a moment, but it all changed. The trunk stretched tall and straight, the spongy mass of ground pushed out small green sprouts, the dead leaves sloughed away from the branches and fell wetly to the ground, and the strange bud, the strange bud that Mimi reached for with fingers extended seemed to be opening…opening… 

Kari staggered back from the tree with a small, wounded sound, and the scene snapped back to its original state. She pulled her hands to her chest as if they'd been burned and her halo of light faded to the flickering brick red of a dying light bulb. Falling into that dull and rotting forest after all that light was like plunging into cold water—it made it hard to breathe.

"_No." _ Mimi gasped.

"It's okay," Kari said, not turning around. "I'll try again."

"Have you both lost your minds?" Tai said loudly, startling everyone. "Let's try something sane like _climbing the tree_ before my sister—"

Kari threw herself forward in an explosion of light, hit the tree with all of her weight, and it burst into bloom. It was spring, summer, fall, winter, spring again, and the undergrowth came up all around them, twined around their legs, sprouted little white bunches of flowers, big pink blossoms, creepers with purple berries, and still Kari _pushed _herself forward, sending out pulse after pulse of her brilliance until all of the dark was gone.

Kari staggered back from the tree and sat down hard in a bed of moss. On the bark, where her palms had been, were two smoldering handprints. And up on the branch, where Palmon had been, there was a whisper of data, and then nothing at all.

* * *

After the initial chorus of exclamations, there was a long, shocked silence, and the only sound was Kari's uneven breathing. She kept her head down until she had her emotions under control, and then looked up over her shoulder. "Oh, _Mimi."_

"It's okay," Mimi said.

Kari turned away and curled forward on herself. "I'm so sorry."

"It's okay," Mimi said again, coming forward to crouch down next to her, smoothing the back of her hair gently. "Let me see your hands."

Kari showed her one cracked, blistered palm.

"Joe!" Mimi called, and the strange spell that had kept the others waiting on the sidelines was broken. They rushed forward, and TK got down on his knees in front of Kari, who never looked away from his steady blue gaze while Joe doctored her hands.

"These aren't as bad as they look, Kari," Joe said. "Nothing a little Polysporin can't cure. At the very worst you'll be able to ah…commit petty theft without leaving fingerprints. That could be a career maker."

"_Joe_," Gomamon groaned.

"Right," said Joe, and fell silent.

Mimi stood.

* * *

_"I have had enough."_

* * *

She breathed in, breathed out, retied her ponytail.

* * *

_"Enough."_

* * *

Izzy came up beside her, and after a moment she reached for his hand.

* * *

"_Every time we fight we wind up losing another friend."_

* * *

Izzy closed his fingers around hers.

* * *

_"I have had…"_

* * *

Mimi closed her eyes and let Izzy anchor her. 

"Enough," she whispered.

And Tai, apart from all of them, fashioned a cross from two sturdy pieces of wood and set it upright in the small mound of dirt he shaped with his hands.

"Look," Sora said.

"Yeah," said Matt. "I see."

* * *

The long, quiet moments began to stack up, and the Digidestined drifted, one by one, back to the edges of Palmon's clearing until they were all waiting on Mimi and Tai—waiting, but not so anxiously, for the next leg of their journey to begin. 

Mimi stood with her arms wrapped tightly around herself and stared up through the branches of the tree at the darkening triangles of sky peeking through. She wondered, did a small patch of sun ever filter down through the leaves and land on Palmon's face?

Was she warm? Was she ever warm?

"We can take all the time you need," Tai said softly. "If you want to stay for a while."

"I'm ready now," she said, and turned to face him. Added distractedly, "This hurts."

"Yeah," Tai said.

"But it's not forever," she said, echoing his own words.

"No," Tai said.

"Okay."

Mimi smiled and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Let's go."

* * *

When they reached the edge of the forest and stepped into the mango twilight, Gomamon broke free of the group and charged through the sand, becoming Ikkakumon in a burst of light and sound before he hit the surf. He crashed through the waves, dove, and resurfaced as Zudomon, twirling his hammer with a flourish and sending a bolt of lightening out over the water, towards the mainland. 

"Come on!" he bellowed. "Server isn't going to conquer itself!"

His raucous laugh boomed across the ocean, and Mimi stifled a giggle.

Tai sent Joe a sly, sideways look. "Are you sure he's yours?"

"You know," Joe said, "I'm really not."

Mimi was the first to cross the sand and wade out to her knees in the fading light of day. The sun bobbed low, and Zudomon reached out a hand so she could climb aboard. By the time they had all settled in on Zudomon's broad shell the world was royal blue, and the sun was lost to the ocean.

Within moments, Crescent Island was nothing but a soft charcoal smudge over her shoulder, but Mimi kept her eyes on it until it disappeared into the night.

* * *

_"Don't cry, Mimi."_

* * *

Mimi breathed in, breathed out.

* * *

_"Don't…"_

* * *

"What's it like?" Kari asked, perched high above the others on the crown of Zudomon's head. "Dying. Being deleted. Does it hurt?" 

"Doesn't hurt," Zudomon said. "It's more just…cold. Tingly, you know? Like when you sleep funny on one fin."

"Is it scary?" she asked, staring down at her bandaged hands. "Do you ever worry you might not come back?"

"Not anymore," Zudomon said. "Not since Joe."

* * *

This ocean voyage was longer than the last, but no storm bore down on them in the night. Mostly they slept, and Zudomon glided on, creating ripples in the glassy black reflection of the night sky. Tai and Izzy were awake long before sunrise, talking strategy, talking game plan, but mostly just keeping one another company. When day broke they were already staring off at the distant shore of Server. 

"Won't be long now," Matt said, coming up beside Tai.

"It'll be good," Izzy said, "to see Server again."

"We figure we'll try to hook up with Gennai," Tai said. "Hopefully he'll have news."

Sora joined them, and handed each a bag of dry cereal. "Breakfast of champions," she muttered. "Gennai?"

"Yeah," Izzy said. "Be nice to lay low for a while. Feed the fish."

He tossed a piece of cereal into the ocean and watched it float away.

"Mmmm," Sora said, eyes fixed on the promising ribbon of the coast.

* * *

"Okay guys, it's been fun, but I'm gonna…you know…head back to Odaiba." 

"Excuse me?"

"It's just…you're crazy if you think I'm walking across that bridge."

"I don't _think _you're walking across it, Mimi. I _know_."

"Oh, you _know_, do you? Well, that changes everything, Mr. Big Leader."

"Yeah?"

"No. See you in Japan."

Kari laughed very suddenly in her goofy old way, and Mimi, pleased, turned to catch a glimpse of her recently absent smile.

"Now, for _that_ I'll stick around," she said.

Kari turned pink at the attention and ducked her head, but when she ventured a glance some moments later, Mimi winked at her and sauntered onto the offending bridge.

"This one does _magic_, I tell you!" Tai announced, giving Kari a quick sideways hug before charging off after Mimi.

"No really," Joe said. "Are we sure this bridge is structurally sound?"

* * *

"Does Gennai even live here anymore?" Matt asked, looking over the lake with a skeptical eye. 

"He's here," Tai said, and as if on cue, the water split wide on a descending staircase.

"This one does the magic, too," Sora quipped. Tai grinned.

They weren't long on the staircase before it became clear that there was something wrong. The way down to Gennai's stronghold was in horrible shape—all chipped at jagged angles and crumbling away. In some places entire stairs were missing and they had to slide down carefully to reach surer footing. Eventually, the telltale static appeared, sparingly at first, but eventually it covered long stretches so it was difficult to tell whether there was anything underneath to hold a person's weight. But worst of all was the absence of Gennai's colorful fish—the lifeless lake walls to either side of them were the most sure sign that there was trouble ahead.

"Maybe he just…moved," Sora said.

No one answered her.

Gennai's cozy underwater home was in even worse shape than the stairs. Everything was smashed and piled in corners, buried in static, sprouting the beginnings of the eerie ribbon-weeds they'd seen in the meadow. There was no doubt now—the Digidestined wouldn't find any answers here. Just one more friend to mourn.

"What do we do?" TK asked.

"Build another cross," Mimi said," and move on."

"Where to?" This from Izzy.

"Ah…the Diner, maybe," Tai said quietly. "Or Piximon's place. I think I could find it, and Kari…"

"I could open the door," Kari said.

"Sounds great," Matt said. "Only, let's get out of here. This place gives me the creeps with those plants growing everywhere."

"Yes," said a new voice. "They are a nice touch."

* * *

a/n: Et tu! Review! 


	10. Sleeping With the Fishes

In-Between-Time

Chapter Ten: Sleeping With the Fishes

a/n: Angel Artist, this chapter is for you, because I know you love downtime, and because you're my sister. My one and only sister. Kinda. I hope you all like this chapter, because I'm really fond of it. I know ryuu-takahashi is going to hate it, considering that he/she just told me to "hold the romance, okay?" and actually used the phrase "kill me, why don't ya" in a review. Wow. Bad timing, pal. This chapter's heavier on the romance than any of the others so far. Whoops. The reference at the end of this chapter is from Prophecy. I didn't do it in italics like I usually do, but it's a pretty obvious one, so I'm sure you'll be able to pick it out. Enjoy.

* * *

"Gatomon," Kari said, and it was almost a sob. Before she decided to move she was running, pushing between Sora and Izzy, sidestepping Tai, and crossing the room to bruise both knees on the dingy wood floor. She was reaching out and gathering Gatomon to her, and the small, white almost-cat curled against her chest and purred.

Joe, who seemed to be recovering from a mild heart attack, was standing with his mouth open and his hand on his chest, and Izzy couldn't seem to stop laughing.

"Oh _shit._" He ran a hand through his short red hair and grinned sheepishly. "I thought we were done for."

"That makes two of us," Matt said.

Kari was standing up now, straightening her baggy sweater, trying to look dignified with her eyes full of tears. "Hey guys. Look who it is."

Gatomon waved, almost shy, from where she stood at Kari's side. There was a chorus of greetings, and Gomamon rushed forward to pounce on Gatomon, giving her a spirited bear hug and making her blush.

"Can't take him anywhere," Joe said.

Gatomon made a point to seek Tai out and ask him how he'd been, but Tai just smiled, and they stood staring around at the room full of their friends

"Gatomon, what are you doing here?" Sora asked finally, when everyone had settled down. "Where's Gennai?"

"I thought you'd never ask," Gatomon said, in her silky, laughing way. "Follow me, Digidestined. There's someone who'd like to see you."

They followed her through the doorway into the next room, equally as wrecked as the first, and watched as she moved to the center of the floor and got down on all fours to shove a pile of static aside.

"Gennai contacted me a few months ago. Told me it was getting too dangerous for him to live here—too many people knew about him. He had a feeling he'd be having some visitors."

Gatomon looked up and smiled. "I assume he meant you."

She went back to work, and a trap door became apparent under the mess of static. "He didn't want to move. He wanted to make sure he would be found by the people who mattered. So we staged his death and took him underground."

She hauled back on the heavy metal ring attached to the trapdoor. "And let me tell you…those white ribbon-things are a bitch to transplant."

Gatomon disappeared down a ladder into the floor, and after a moment, the others followed.

The difference was startling. A vast room had been scooped out underneath the old apartment. It was cozy and well furnished, with a kitchen alcove, an enormous map of the Digital World on one wall, and a long low table in the center of the room. There was plenty of over-stuffed seating—enough for at least twenty people or Digimon—and a hanging lamp that cast intimate shadows on the floor. The only door leading off the main room was hung with a piece of heavy maroon cloth, and a hand came from the other side and pushed it open, revealing the small and wildly grinning Gennai in all his splendor.

"Gennai!" Mimi shrieked, hurrying over to clasp his hand and beam down at him. "We thought you were dead! What a wonderful little home!"

"Why, thank you dear," Gennai said, looking pleased with himself, and then, "Your hair is pink."

"And you," Mimi said, "look exactly the same."

Gennai lowered his voice. "Have I heard correctly? Palmon…"

"It's not forever," Mimi said, and Tai thought that those three words had perhaps become a mantra for her, as they had for him.

"Exactly," Gennai said, and smiled kindly. "Who wants popcorn?"

* * *

Despite their protests, Gennai laid out a feast for them, and once they had settled in, everyone had to admit that some food and a comfortable chair really hit the spot. The only person who couldn't be persuaded to rest was Izzy, who had gotten a look at the Digiworld Map, and couldn't be peeled off of it. But then, that was understandable. It was no ordinary map.

Infected areas were indicated in black and white and shimmered slightly, some spreading slowly outwards, eating up the healthy land around them. It seemed to be updating itself automatically, and Izzy stood in front of it for a long time with his lips parted and one hand on top of his head as if he'd forgotten it there. Eventually, Mimi walked over and put a plate of food in his other hand, kissed him on the cheek, and walked back to the table, completely missing his near-fumble of the plate, and the frantic red-faced glance backwards to see if she'd noticed. She hadn't, but everyone else had, and Matt, doubled over laughing, choked spectacularly on a glass of water. Izzy ignored him, but the back of his neck, violently pink, gave him away.

"Gennai, you must know what's causing this," Sora said.

"Well, it seems that Izzy here has a thing for—" Gennai started.

"No!" Sora interrupted, glaring at Matt and Tai, who were now leaning on one another and shaking with silent laughter. Mimi primly poured herself a glass of lemonade.

"No," Sora repeated. "I meant whatever's going on with the Digital World. This…infection."

"Ah," said Gennai. "Virus."

Izzy turned now, eyes alight with interest, and for a long moment looked as if he couldn't decide what question to ask first. Gennai made it easy for him.

"It's coming from one of the dimensions that sits parallel to the Digital World. My best guess is it originated there, fed off of the data, and then found it had nowhere else to go. That's when it started punching through to our world, especially in areas rich in new data."

"Primary Village," Tai said.

"Exactly," Gennai said.

Matt had recovered himself enough to get another glass of water and spear some desert. "What about the Digimon we've seen? Surimon, and that massive yeti thing?"

"Mutations, some of them," Gennai said. "Birthed and raised by the virus, unintelligent berserkers. I assume your yeti was one of these."

"And the Surimon?" Tai said. "I've met Surimon before. I don't think the virus created them."

"Just one of the many types of Digimon who are changing sides," Gennai said.

"Self preservation," Joe said.

"I think that will change once word gets out that you're back," Gatomon said, looking up from the massive plate of fish Gomamon was glaring at. "Gomamon, get a _grip_."

"Well, hopefully they can be persuaded that we're the winning side," Matt said.

Tai nodded. "The last thing the Digiworld needs right now is a civil war."

* * *

When Mimi started nodding off at the table, Gennai clapped his hands, started sweeping the remaining food off to the kitchen, and shooed the Digidestined into the alcove room he had appeared from. Sora was the first through the heavy velvet curtain, and her delighted exclamation was echoed as each of them entered the room behind her. It was almost as large as the first, circular, with upwards of 15 beds around the edges, but the most spectacular feature was the glass column running through its center, illuminated by the soft lamplight, and filled top to bottom with all of Gennai's colorful fish.

"How did…what…who built…?" Izzy stammered.

"I majored in architecture," Gennai said.

That seemed to settle the matter.

* * *

Sora was utterly content, cocooned in a soft flannel pajama set, and snuggled up to her chin in what could only be a down comforter. There was a cup of lemon tea on her dresser, a third of it gone, and she marveled at this completely new thing…feeling safe and protected in the Digital World. They spent so much time on the run. She imagined that Tai was more tired of being on guard than any of them.

Tai.

Oh boy.

She let her eyes drift shut for a while, but she wasn't really ready to sleep, so she propped her head up on her arms and watched the fish snatch the pretzels drifting down from somewhere up above. She reached for the tea and caught a glimpse of wild brown hair sticking out from under covers several beds over and quickly looked away.

Yes, Tai was something unexpected.

Mimi landed hard at the foot of Sora's bed, nearly upending the cup of hot tea, and then bounced up and down several times for good measure, squishing around until she was comfortable.

"This is great," she said.

Sora looked up, prepared to say something scathing that she didn't really mean, but was stopped short by Mimi's appearance. She had in a full set of sponge rollers, her face was covered in some sort of green substance, and had she?…yes. She had painted her nails.

"Mimi, where did you get all of that?" Sora said.

"I brought it," Mimi said.

"Please tell me that's a joke."

Mimi blinked. "Why would I joke about that?"

Sora opened her mouth, closed it.

Mimi shrugged. "Anyway, I need to talk to you. Give me your hand."

"What, are you going to read my palm?"

"Um…no. I'm going to do your nails."

Sora sighed and watched as Mimi spread a pile of manicure related tools across the bed. "So, what color would you like them?"

"Mimi-"

Mimi waved her hands around impatiently. "Oh, what do you know? I'll choose."

Mimi snatched Sora's hand, took up one of her wacky little torture devices, lowered her voice and said. "So, Tai's cute."

"So go out with him," Sora grumbled.

"Ha! No," Mimi said. "I meant you."

"I'm with Matt," Sora said.

"Yeah, but it's _Tai_. You've been in love with Tai since you were an amoeba."

Sora groaned and dropped her forehead into the hand Mimi wasn't filing away at. "I _know_."

"Something to think about, anyway," Mimi said.

* * *

They didn't talk much after that.

Sora rose early, completely refreshed, and went to scrounge some breakfast in her bare feet and bed hair. She padded quietly through the main room and into the kitchen, planning on reheating something from the night before, but instead of a fridge full of leftovers she found Tai standing in front of the stove. He turned when she came in and smiled, flipping an omelet with a flick of his wrist.

"Morning," he said, and slid the omelet onto a plate, holding it out to her. "Breakfast?"

"Wow," she said climbing up on the counter and holding out her hands for the plate. "The service here is great."

Tai laughed, threw a dollop of butter in the pan, and swirled it around until it sizzled. Sora poured each of them a cup of coffee from the pot sitting next to her. "Where does Gennai get all this stuff?"

Tai glanced around the unsettlingly earthlike kitchen. "I'm afraid to ask."

"He minored in appliance installation," Sora said around a mouthful of omelet.

"He used to be a short order cook," Tai said, and neatly flipped his omelet.

"I moved it all down from upstairs," Gennai called from the next room, and it was a long time before either of them could stop laughing.

When Tai's omelet was done he hopped onto the counter next to Sora, and they ate for some time in comfortable silence, their shoulders not quite touching. When Sora had finished eating she set her plate aside and palmed her steaming coffee mug. She didn't really know what was right anymore, but she did know…

"Tai."

"Yeah, Sora."

"Thanks for cooking me breakfast."

"Welcome."

"Tai…"

"Mmmm?"

"Matt and I…we're really something when we're together. I…intend to keep him."

Tai looked up.

"But if things had been different, I think you should know…"

"_Wow_," Matt exclaimed, walking into the kitchen and stretching enormously. "I don't think I have _ever_ slept that well. Hey…you making omelets?"

Sora got down from the counter.

"Yeah, man," Tai said. "Tomato and cheese?"

"How do you remember that?"

Matt leaned casually on the counter and crossed his arms over his chest. Tai had to smile, watching him. He'd always been such an outrageous golden boy.

"Haven't had much to do," Tai said, his eyes sliding over to catch a last glimpse of Sora as she slipped out of the kitchen, "aside from remember."

* * *

"Maybe they haven't made it to the finals for the last three years because they _suck_."

Tai wrinkled his nose and started to say something rude, but Matt would never find out where exactly he should shove his opinion of Tai's favorite soccer team because TK ran into the kitchen, skidded to a stop, and startled an end to any further debate. He steadied himself with a hand on the counter, took a deep breath and said, "Gennai needs to talk to us, says it's about Patamon, come now."

He was gone before either of them had a chance to respond, but they didn't need much convincing. Matt and Tai took off after TK and joined the others in the crowd around Gennai at the map's viewing screen. Even in the confusion and excitement Tai noticed Mimi, whose hair was all in tidy pink ringlets, and said, "Hey, you look nice."

"Focus, Tai." Mimi said, but looked pleased all the same.

"I thought you might be interested to know," Gennai said, "that Patamon is nearby. He was spotted by a migrating herd of Yokomon, and they sent word out through The Network."

"What network?" Izzy said eagerly.

"Really?" Matt said. "That's what caught your attention?"

Gennai tapped the screen lightly, enlarging a dark spot to the northwest of his lake, and they all recognized it at once.

"That's the coliseum where Agumon digivolved into Skullgreymon," Tai said.

"Used to be," said Gennai. "Now it's a stronghold, infected by the virus. I don't know how many guards they have inside, but the Yokomon saw at least ten rookie Digimon escorting Patamon when they arrived last night."

"Ten on two," Gatomon said.

"Probably more like twenty on two," Gomamon said.

Gatomon flexed her claws. "Sucks to be them."

* * *

The coliseum was looming in the distance by midday, but crossing a desert was hungry work, and when they came upon an oasis, even TK agreed that they should make a quick stop. A snotty remark from Matt about their lack of a plan and Tai's love of charging in half cocked had Sora looking between the two of them nervously, but Tai just laughed and said, "But when has it not worked?" And then sat down with Izzy over a detailed blueprint of the building that he'd hacked on the Pineapple. Matt fixed them all up with the snack Gennai had packed for them, but Tai waved off his portion and told him to give it to the Digimon. Izzy nudged him with the tree branch he was drawing diagrams with in the sand, and Tai turned his attention back to the complicated doodles.

"Well, I like it," Tai said. "Good plan."

Sora, who was leaning over Tai to get a look at the drawing, snorted. "You don't know what that means."

"Not really," said Tai.

Izzy sighed and erased the drawing with a swipe of his hand. "Okay, so this is what we're going to do…"

* * *

"Risky," Matt said.

"_Brilliant_," Tai said.

Matt sighed. "Yes, you would think that."

* * *

Tai, completely in his element, strolled casually through a stone doorway and onto the arena floor, leaving an even line of footprints in the static. He ignored the dropping jaws of the lounging Digimon that littered the coliseum, ignored the memories of how badly he screwed up the last time he was here and the deep, crazy growls coming from another entrance like the one he'd walked through, far off to his left. He just put one foot in front of the other until he reached the center and stood, like some kind of gladiator in a blue t-shirt, his arms crossed casually over his chest, and smirked.

From up in the bleachers where he crouched with Sora and waited, Matt marveled at how steady Tai was, and Tai would have been mortified if Matt knew he was falling back on an imitation of his cool, blonde friend.

"Is this a joke?" said a Kiwimon, stepping forward. "You must have a death wish."

Tai's expression didn't falter. "I hear you have a friend of mine. So hand him over."

A ripple of laughter passed through the crowd, and Tai quickly scanned their faces. Garbagemon, there, and…Candlemon? Yes. Six or seven Bakemon. A pair of Gazimon. Something purple and lumpy with a sad face was flanking a whole slew of Pagumon, and lurking in the doorway were several sets of the deep, dark eyes that could only belong to Surimon—the Digimon they'd encountered back at Infinity Mountain. Tai turned and took in the rest of the arena. Just behind him was the upturned soccer net they'd been trapped under three years ago, fastened to the ground with a mass of sticky webs and guarded carefully by a leering Dokugumon. Patamon was under that net, no doubt about it.

"This is your whole army?" Tai said. "Really? I'd have expected you to have at least one Ultimate Digimon with you, but all I'm seeing is a bunch of babies."

"Oh, yes," Dokugumon snarled. "That's rich, coming from a single human child. What are you going to do? Annoy us into handing over the Patamon?"

"Um, no," Tai said. "I'm going to fight you."

"You and what army?"

Tai laughed. "I was _so _hoping you would say that."

Tai looked up over his shoulder to the very highest point of the coliseum wall. A small, dark silhouette was barely visible there, against the dark, swirling backdrop of the sky, but at Tai's look it shone with a light that seemed to come from inside of itself.

Dokugumon shied back against her web, and Kiwimon, suddenly furious, stepped forward to challenge Tai. "What are you playing at, Digidestined?"

Tai just smiled.

_Oh, _he thought, _it's good to be back.

* * *

_

Kari's long ponytail blew out to the side of her in the wind. Her bandaged hands fisted at her sides. She could feel everyone, see everyone. She reached out to them. Kari pushed the darkness back.

"Okay, Joe," she said. "Now."

Joe stepped up behind her and put a hand lightly on her shoulder. Down on the steps in front of them where Gomamon and Salamon waited, the wind kicked up, carrying a high, wavering sound of power.

"I think it's working," Joe said.

Salamon looked back at Kari. She was glowing, laughing, light coming from her eyes, her ears.

"I think you're right," Kari said.

Gomamon whooped.

Salamon let out a high, ecstatic scream.

"_Salamon warp digivolve to_…"

"_Gomamon warp digivolve to_…"

* * *

Outside the stone fortress, a hot, blinding shockwave knocked Izzy and Mimi to the ground and rearranged the sand dunes for miles in every direction. Light poured from every window, every crack in the coliseum walls, and Mimi buried her face in her arms until the light faded. When Izzy had managed to lever himself into a sitting position, he looked up at the sky and watched a long, white-furred dragon take to the air above the arena, moving like a river in a fluid circle, and then dive, her roar shaking dust from the ancient walls. "_Magnadramon_!"

Izzy pumped a fist in the air and then fell back onto the sand, grinning. "Yes!"

Mimi leapt up and did a happy little jig, and they both laughed.

* * *

Waiting for his moment in a dark doorway at the arena's edge, TK had to pull his eyes away from the web covered soccer goal to watch as what appeared to be an enormous, white, sea monster reached the arena floor in one bound, knocking several Digimon off their feet with the force of his landing. "_Plesiomon!"_

He gnashed his teeth, and roared for good measure, but TK could see a twinkle in his eyes. Typical.

TK pulled his hat off and crammed it in his back pocket. He crouched low, ready to spring forward any second…any second now…

* * *

Plesiomon lowered his head and peered into the stunned faces of the crowd of Digimon.

"Boo," he said, and Magnadramon circled in the air above him, kicking up a tornado of static and dust.

Suddenly feeling very small and exposed, wondering where all of his bravado had gone, Tai staggered a few steps back and almost tripped over a herd of fleeing Pagumon. Finally, his back hit the wall, and he leaned against it. They were huge. _Huge._

"Whoa," Tai breathed, and turned to search the rows of coliseum seating, finally locating the top of Matt's blonde head, peeking out from behind a row of seats. Even at that distance, Tai saw Matt turn to look for him.

Up in the stands, Matt found Tai, made sure he was out of harm's way, and then watched the crowd of Digimon literally scatter and run. Magnadramon turned circles like a ferris wheel high above the arena, and Kari's inner light punched through the dark canopy, revealing patches of the blue, endless sky. Matt let out a short, amazed laugh.

"Cool."

* * *

a/n: Shiny new set of Zebra F-301 pens: 6.95

New laptop for writing on the go: 1600

Repeated semester of college due to excessive fanfiction writing: 3200 + expenses

Just one review from you: priceless


	11. A Time to Gladiate

In-Between-Time

Chapter Eleven: A Time to Gladiate

a/n: Go take a look at my C2 community! It's undergone a pretty substantial overhaul, and there's nothing on there that isn't worth your time. Excellent fics. Especially anything by Pied Piper, dreamcruiser, Flash-Indie, Silver1, and orchid falls. They're all effin' brilliant.

Also, on another note, quotes from this extremely belated chapter are from _The Dark Network of Etemon_.Oh! And I'm a registered beta now. Send me your betables. Cheers!

This chapter is for ryuu-takahashi, who is a good sport, even when I'm not. :)

* * *

In the new light, in the reflection of Kari's unduplicated soul, the coliseum began to change. As the seal of darkness peeled back and let in the pale yellow light of day, ashy heaps dissolved and sank into the sand. Seeing this, the panicked Rookies lost their cool. Gazimon, Floramon, and a stray Datamon who may have been an enemy reborn clawed and shoved at each other, single minded in their desperation. Surimon who hadn't reached the shelter of a stone doorway burst into data under Kari's gaze and blew away on the breeze. Others crouched beneath the stadium seats, blinking owlishly, eyes strange and glassy. The sound was deafening. The crystalline fracturing of virus-born Rookies, the wordless din of voices, the scraping and scrabbling of fangs and claws against rock, against each other. And a strange growling…a low rumbling…an approaching storm? No matter. They had them on the run. Tai turned, feeling bold, to the task at hand.

"Hey ugly! That's right you sack of mud, come get me! Come on, you mutant, are you scared?"

Tai bent, picked up a fist-sized rock, and lobbed it at Dokugumon with his customarily effortless accuracy, hitting her squarely in the eye with an unsettling squelching sound. The effect was immediate. All activity stopped and the horde turned as one to watch the exchange between the van-sized Champion and the reckless human youth. There was a long tense moment as Dokugumon flailed, almost comically, for balance, eyes burning red and fixed in hatred on Tai's deeply tanned face, but gravity wasn't on her side, and she toppled backward off of the overturned soccer net, hitting the ground with a dull thud and kicking up a small whirlwind of sand.

Tai crowed.

In the wide and dark coliseum, the sound echoed loudly and faded away to a silence that stretched and snapped like an overstressed guitar string. There was a rumbling then, and scores of Champions poured onto the battleground through evenly spaced stone archways, crouching low, flexing and snarling, surrounding Plesiomon and Magnadramon. The Rookies resumed their retreat, flowing like schools of strange fish, making little tracks in the sand. They rushed past the Champions and cowered, but they never drew the attention of the advancing monsters whose faces were so familiar to the Digidestined. They were former enemies, former friends, but some were twisted and mapped with black veins, their eyes lost and empty. They were black-and-white projections of the warriors they had been, leaping forward in space and time, jittering and obscured by a haze of static. They were the children of the virus, and Tai could feel them inside of him as he stood, waiting for his moment.

The two Megas watched the ring of their attackers tighten and exchanged a careless glance. Plesiomon let out a booming laugh, and Kari ripped open the remainder of the dark canopy blocking the sky, letting the sun shine down and reflect a million points of soft pink light off of her partner's scales like rose petals. Magnadramon, lovely and lethal, reached for her nearest opponent, and drew him to her.

Tai felt the earth through the soles of his shoes, he felt each controlled breath, in, out. He tensed. He smiled at Dokugumon, raising a challenging eyebrow--a face that could take Matt from zero to pissed off in 2.5 seconds.

"Well?" he said, his voice lazy, his heart racing.

Dokugumon roared, trails of saliva connecting the tips of her sharp teeth, and snapped her head to the side, her eyes searching a nearby doorway.

"Kill the Patamon," she hissed into the dark, and then hurled herself at Tai, scurrying on eight black legs, her bulbous abdomen dragging on the ground. And Tai sensed more than saw a hunched form in that doorway, gliding out of the shadows, before he turned to run, Dokugumon fast on his heels.

* * *

As he crouched, just yards away from the soccer net, TK felt a sort of coldness that was almost in the air, but more than that, it settled at the base of his spine; on the nape of his neck. And there was almost a sound. A dry skin sound, or a scraping of birch bark, and he turned to look along the wall to the next doorway to the right. A grinning, empty-eyed skull was inching its sightless face around the edge of the doorjamb to stare at TK and to laugh, though its mouth never moved.

"I'm going to kill you," it said, "and your little pig friend."

It turned its head slowly, cocking it to the side like an inquisitive puppy. The grin seemed to widen, and three white, wrinkled fingers groped around the edge of the doorway, stroking the stone wall.

"Are you scared, little boy?"

Somewhere far away, Tai was running, and Dokugumon was taking the bait. He had to act now, before she caught up, before it was too late.

TK slowly reached his hand into his pocket and closed his fingers around the solid handle of Izzy's knife. The balls of his feet found purchase in the sand and he tensed, blinking through a haze of adrenaline.

"I'm not a little boy," TK said. "And he is not a pig."

* * *

Tai was in the zone. He settled into a sprint, his breathing even, his feet barely touching the fine sand. He could hear Dokugumon behind him, rasping, her teeth clicking, but it was all falling away. All he had to do was reach the shelter between Plesiomon's firmly planted fins, and he would be safe.

He loved this rush, this fear. This shouldering of Agumon's burden. Being a part of the fight, being in the thick of it. The responsibility of leading his friends into danger…that was a horror he gladly spared the others from, but it didn't give him the release, the satisfaction, of jumping in with both eyes open. He pushed harder, his strides lengthened. Just a moment longer.

* * *

_Shit,_" Matt hissed, leaping to his feet as Sora did the same beside him. "There's someone down there with TK. Do you see…"

But Sora's eyes were focused elsewhere. Matt turned to look at her and found her, one hand planted on the seat in front of her, thin frame straining forward as she looked off across the coliseum, past Tai and Dokugumon, past the raging battle between the Megas and the Champions, at the farthest wall. Matt opened his mouth to question her, but thought better of it and turned to look as well. And that was when they heard it.

* * *

That deep strangled roar shook hundred year old dust from the walls, and this time Tai understood. His feet stopped working, and he nearly pitched forward into the sand, but he caught himself somehow and stood, breathing painfully around a thick lump in his throat, as the past rushed forward and left him paralyzed on the battlefield.

"Skullgreymon?" Tai said numbly, and didn't hear Dokugumon's scream of triumph.

And as if in answer to Tai's quiet voice, the wall burst and crumbled around a stone door, and there he was, hatred rolling off of him in cold waves, a true monster, a monster Tai had the power to call forward. Tai closed his eyes against the bleached white bones. _It can't be him it can't be him…_

He opened his eyes.

"Agumon?" Tai whispered, and his knees went weak.

* * *

Matt watched all of the fight go out of Tai, watched Dokugumon bear down on him, watched as TK drew the knife from his pocket and held it out in front of him so it glinted in the sun, and realized, not for the first time, how casually they threw their lives around. His best friend, his little brother, the young woman he'd come to love…what were they doing here? He turned to Sora and hated the desperation in his voice when he said her name.

But he was ready.

"I've got TK," she said, her fingers closed tight around the walking stick. That hardness was back in her eyes. "Go."

Matt was barreling down the row of seats long before he had time to register any sort of fear. He took a flying leap and hit the sand hard enough to send little jolts of pain screaming up from the tips of his toes, but he didn't slow down. God, it was just like Tai to take everything on his own shoulders; to face the worst of the messes that came their way without anyone beside him.

It was just like him to forget that he wasn't alone anymore.

"Tai, you moron, get down!" Matt yelled, but Tai was frozen, staring into a pair of empty black sockets, looking for any spark of recognition.

And oh yes, Skullgreymon stared back.

"Tai, _move_!"

Magnadramon and Plesiomon surged forward to meet Skullgreymon as if on some silent command, and the chalky shriek of claws hitting bone raised the hair on the back of Matt's neck. He pushed his body harder, but he already knew he'd never make it in time. Dokugumon coiled and sprang, Skullgreymon loosed some kind of cannon fire, and the resulting explosion blinded Matt for several long seconds. When he had finally staggered upright and blinked the sand out of his eyes, Dokugumon was bent over something…someone…oh God…

* * *

TK dodged the lurching, grinning digimon, fighting a sudden and strange wave of nausea, and hit the sand, a wiry blonde blur, the knife a comforting weight against his palm. He skidded to his knees in front of the sticky cocoon of the soccer net and grabbed a fistful in his left hand, tearing and slashing with the knife until his hands were thick with the stuff. He held the gash he'd made wide open and realized he was yelling Patamon's name, but he fell silent at the sight of a pair of big, kind eyes, delicate orange paws, fluttering bat wings, and a very goofy smile.

* * *

"_I thought I lost you again."_

"_I'm like a boomerang, I just keep coming back."_

* * *

"Oh, Patamon," TK whispered hoarsely.

But the grin fell away from Patamon's face, and he surged forward. "TK, look out!"

TK spun just in time to see a white, hooked claw slashing down at-

* * *

Some hysterical part of Matt suddenly wished that he had time for a long-suffering sigh, or at the very least, a sarcastic remark. A _why me, _or a _I told him I wasn't going to attack any more giant spiders with my bare hands_ would have sufficed, but he barely had time to realize what he intended to do before he leapt directly onto Dokugumon's creepily dry, smooth back and ripped out a handful of coarse hairs at the roots.

Dokugumon screamed and Matt stared down at the bouquet of hairs in his fist, horrified, before finding himself airborne for a long time, hitting the ground--his ankle made an awful, popping sound--and rolling a good ways to a painful stop.

"Christ," he muttered, disoriented, forcing his cramping fist to open. The black hairs fluttered to the ground and Matt turned, looking for Tai, and saw Dokugumon slash down brutally with a dripping fang. Tai yelled. Matt levered himself unsteadily to his feet, trying to keep weight off of his ankle (yes, ow, definitely a sprain) and went back for round two.

* * *

Sora let out a war cry that left TK startled and admiring, and swung the walking stuck into the grinning skull of his attacker without the slightest hesitation. The digimon's head rang like a gong, and he crumpled to one side, his white fingers clutching at sand.

We have to stop meeting like this," TK said flippantly, though his eyes were a little wide, and his breath was coming fast and panicked.

"It's really not my fault you need so much rescuing…" Sora said, and Patamon stepped into the light.

"Can you digivolve?" TK asked.

Patamon grinned.

* * *

Matt wasn't sure what he'd been planning on doing once he caught hold of Dokugumon's eyelid, but he figured _hold on_ was a good enough plan, so that's what he did. He was vaguely aware that Tai had gone awfully quiet. Odd…he'd have expected the reckless hothead to draw attention back to himself. This was…uncharacteristic. Matt was also thinking that being swung around by an enraged spider was not the worst thing that had ever happened to him, though he didn't necessarily want to make a habit of it. It was kind-of like a…Tilt-O-Whirl. He was getting light-headed now, and something was telling him to let go. Perhaps his better judgment was having its say or…no…that was Sora. She was screaming at him to--

"Matt, _let go!"_

He did.

"Hand of Fate!"

Matt tucked, rolled, and then lay gasping on the sand. The world went grey, and then came back into almost-focus, but it was hard to make anything out through all of the black spots dancing in front of his eyes. If he wasn't so sure he had a head injury, he would have sworn he saw Angemon in the sky, hovering there like his own personal guardian angel.

And good thing too, because apparently, in a fight between two Digidestined and one very angry Dokugumon…the spider wins.

* * *

Dokugumon hissed and staggered on a few damaged legs, trying to make a run for it, but no matter where she turned, the dark shadow of Angemon was waiting for her. She forgot Tai and left him unguarded, making a pained, groaning sound with each uneven step, crossing the sand at a crawl.

Matt shook his head forcefully and came back to his senses enough to scramble to Tai's side, and found him pale and unconscious, bleeding alarmingly from a gash in one arm. Typical. Trouble magnet.

"Wake up, Tai."

He put a hand on Tai's uninjured arm and shook him lightly. "Hey, wake up."

"M'fine," Tai mumbled. "Knock it off."

"Great, asshole," Matt said, closing his eyes against the painful wave of relief, and rocking back to sit down heavily in the sand. "Next time, when I tell you get down, hit the dirt, got it?"

Tai smiled. "You're the boss."

A muted thunderclap echoed off the coliseum walls, and a wave of warm air ruffled their hair. Matt and Tai both looked at the sky, searching for the source of the sound, and the bright gold outline of the crest of hope warmed them like the sun, flooding every corner of the battlefield with light.

"Nice!" Matt called, and Tai turned gingerly to follow his gaze. Sora and TK were running up to join them.

"I do what I can," TK said, jogging to a stop, and nodding at the newly digiolved MagnaAngemon in greeting. The angel gave him a long, solemn glance, and then spun, spreading his massive wings, and carved a circle in the air with his sword. "Gate of Destiny!"

And that was how Dokugumon checked out.

* * *

By the time MagnaAngemon had strolled up casually to stand over TK, who suddenly looked very small, Matt had gotten an arm around Tai and eased him carefully into a sitting position. Tai looked positively green, and his eyes were shut tight with the effort of holding on to consciousness.

"I'm fine, really," he muttered, and Sora rolled her eyes at Matt as she tied a scrap of fabric tightly around the gash. It bled through immediately, but until they met up with Joe, there wasn't much she could do. He had all of their supplies. She smoothed Tai's hair back from his forehead and frowned at the heat radiating from his skin.

"Tai, I'm going to hand you over to MagnaAngemon," Matt said, glancing up at the angel, who nodded once. "He's going to get you out of here. We'll meet up with you as soon as-"

But Tai shot suddenly to his feet, and Matt barely managed to catch him before he toppled over again.

"Skullgreymon!" Tai gasped.

Kari and Joe's partners had made short work of the Champion army. The virus-born digimon were strong, but not strong enough for two Megas. Whatever Champions hadn't already made a frantic retreat were hovering at the edges of the arena, looking torn between running for their lives and staying to watch. Magnadramon and Plesiomon clearly had the upper hand. Skullgreymon didn't have a chance, but he was a berserker, and self-preservation didn't factor in. They had him backed into a corner, and Magnadramon looked up at Kari, hesitating. Skullgreymon roared.

"Wait, _no!_" Tai called, but Kari nodded her permission and Magnadramon lunged.

Sora grabbed Tai by the shoulders, forcing him to look her in the eyes.

"It's not him, Tai," she said quietly as Skullgreymon shattered behind her. Tai took a deep, shuddering breath at the sound.

"I promise you, Tai. That wasn't Agumon."

The dust settled, and the last few Champions faded silently into the shadows in a final retreat. Gatomon and Gomamon reappeared and Joe came running across the sand to Tai, who sat down hard before Matt could catch him. Gatomon leapt into MagnaAngemon's arms, and he held her while she purred. Kari was the last to rejoin the group, and by the time she had ghosted her way to TK's side, Joe had finished with Tai and moved on to Matt's ankle.

Tai and Kari looked at each other quietly, and for the first time, Tai felt like there was an unfathomable distance between them. He looked for some kind of apology in her eyes, but all he saw was quiet confidence.

"Kari…Kari what if that was him?" he said quietly, but everyone heard.

"It wasn't," she said.

"You can't _know _that," Tai said, his voice rough with emotion. "I know all of this power must make you feel like you're infallible, Kari, but you're _not. _You can't just jump in like that, make _decisions _like that! You're not the only one who…who…"

Kari looked away, and Sora reached for Tai, but that was when they heard Mimi scream, and Izzy's panicked yell for help, and after that, a lot of things changed.


	12. The Princess and the Ogre

In-Between-Time

Chapter Twelve - The Princess and the Ogre

a/n: I'd say "sorry!" but at this point it's probably too late for all that. Life gets in the way. But here's my first update in like...two years, apparently. It's my own ode to Mimi, a bit of a segue from the usual. We're coming up on the end, though. A few more chapters. I'll finish it even if there's no one left who cares, but if you're still following this story please leave a review and tell me what you think! I'm particularly worried about no one liking this chapter. Thanks to everyone who's still hanging around the Digimon fandom! Mimi fans, this one's for you. Enjoy.

P.S. check out my blog: fandomonium dot wordpress dot com

* * *

_Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess, and she lived in a castle with her mother and father, who loved her very much. They raised her to be elegant and demure and royal, and they taught her about table manners and how to be silent when the maid laces up your corset. They taught her how to sit so as to appear the most lovely and fragile in candlelight. They taught her how to lure a prince, but they didn't teach her a single thing about life, because they were rather silly, boys and girls. I mean, let's face it. They were sweet human beings, but they raised a daughter with a temper and a sense of entitlement and not one ounce of common sense..._

_

* * *

_

On an elevated circular altar, hands tied above her head, bare toes scrabbling for purchase on the gritty stone below, surrounded by a surging, jeering crowd of digimon, Mimi Tachikawa realized that her survival had never been so unlikely as it was at this particular moment.

Her sudden imprisonment, Palmon's senseless death, the slow sickening of the Digital World, every aching moment of those three years home in Odaiba, knowing they'd left Tai for dead-these things were physical to her now. They formed a hard knot in her chest. A hot, churning place of strength. Every endless roadblock in this years-long nightmare had led her here. She felt new.

She felt complete, here at the end.

* * *

Several days earlier...

Mimi was not afraid. She was not afraid. Mimi was _not _afraid. Mimi was…

Mimi was terrified.

There were thick white ropes cutting into her ankles, wrapped around her stomach, cutting painfully into her skin…no…not ropes. Leaves? Vines? And a hand in hers. A large, warm, strong hand, and someone yelling her name. God, what was going on, what was happening? Everyone was pulling, she was going to be pulled apart. Down…down…she was being pulled under the sand and Izzy was holding on to her, and he'd never let go. He'd never let her…

_Oh, please, Izzy, don't let me go._

_

* * *

_

_Now, one day the princess was standing on the ornate balcony at the highest point of the highest tower of her castle and staring out at the sea, and she thought it was just another day. She was wearing a pink gossamer dress with a train ten feet long, and all ten feet of it were winking in the wind. She tossed her hair and lowered her eyes and tried to look sorrowful and romantic. Looking sorrowful and romantic were sure to net her a prince. And it's true she was a vision, but that didn't do much for her when the balcony crumbled and dumped her into the ocean, because no one was doing much maintenance on that extravagant castle, it turns out. Wave after wave washed over her, and her brief glimpses of the shore showed it farther and farther away, and that ton of pink gossamer dragged her under the water every time she caught her breath. _

_ And believe me, if somehow she managed not to drown, this was a girl who needed to make a change, because she wasn't going to make it far as she was._

_

* * *

_

She tried to hold on. She did. Until the last moment, when his tight grip crushed her slender fingers and they still slipped. She curled her carefully manicured fingertips and tried to hook them onto something, tried to learn a way to keep them together. But she wasn't strong enough, and neither was he, and the last thing she heard before her head was pulled under the sand and she drew in a thick breath of the fine gritty stuff was Izzy's agonized yell. She hated to think that causing him pain was the last thing she would ever do. So she fought.

Mimi bit, clawed, tore at the thick paper vines, closed her mouth against the intrusion of sand, then mud, then water. She bit down on her tongue until the grey spots behind her eyelids dissolved, and when she couldn't fight to get free and longer, she fought to stay conscious. The rope-like plants tightened their hold, moving with purpose, binding her hands together, carrying her along, and when she was sure she was finished, sure she would die in the Digital World like she should have done three years ago, she broke through the surface of a cold lake.

She floated there for a long moment, until up became down, and she fell up to the ceiling…down to the floor. The plants retreated so quickly it was almost as if they'd never been there, and Mimi was left, lying on her back in a dim cavern, staring up at the smooth strange ceiling of water. She rolled weakly to her knees and curled in on herself, gagging, feeling grit between her teeth. She was freezing, soaked through, and her hair hung limp and muddy in thick clumps. She put her trembling hand to a painful spot on her cheek and it came back slick with blood. It seemed she had also lost her shoes, and this struck her as funny, prompting a fit of the giggles that made her feel utterly unhinged and seemed to go on forever. She though for a moment that something inside her might break. Oh, God, what was going on?

She wasn't strong—not like the others. She would die down here. After everything, after all the near misses, someone had figured it out. With the others to protect her Mimi was safe but alone she had nothing to offer. She was a weak link. It made sense to pick her off first. Why not? It would leave the others demoralized, they would feel vulnerable. Perhaps they would do something stupid in an attempt at revenge. Yes, someone would be along to deal with her shortly and then everything would begin to unravel.

She stood. She might as well meet death on her feet. It seemed more noble. She remembered her hair and her hands reached up automatically to try to arrange it. She wouldn't want to die looking like this, it seemed unfitting somehow. She slicked the dirty pink mess back into a respectable little knot and secured it with the elastic band around her wrist. Oh, her clothes were a mess. If only she had something more appropriate. Something white and flowing. A dress, maybe. Something fluffy. She straightened her mauve sweatshirt as best she could, but there was a huge tear in it now-there was nothing to be done. She picked restlessly at the fabric. She wiggled her cold toes. She was starting to feel agitated. Where was her damn executioner? She was trying to have a moment here, she was trying to be brave and serene and this was _all wrong_. In fact, she refused to have any part in it. It was all so absurd, what was she _thinking_?

Mimi Tachikawa had no intention of dying in this dirty, damp, disgusting cave! It was insulting, frankly. She deserved better! And she hated to be kept waiting, what was the meaning of this?

No one treated Mimi this way. No, this was unacceptable and someone was going to pay. She could be independent. She could be brave like Tai. He had been alone for three years and Mimi had fallen apart after three minutes-that wasn't the person she wanted to be. It was time for a change.

It was time for someone to taste the wrath of Mimi, it was time for her to take her revenge. She was taking a step into a new tomorrow as she launched into a brisk walk down that dark tunnel. She wouldn't stop until the job was done…

* * *

Some time later…

Mimi was bored. Mossy stone walls were never terribly interesting, and after what must have been at least three hours (it had been twenty minutes) she was ready to scream.

"Hello?" she called softly. Her own voice echoed back.

She sighed. She had to be patient. That was the old Mimi, expecting immediate results. She had to work for what she wanted. This was the Digital World, and she was in trouble. She had to stay calm, be rational. She couldn't lose her cool if she...

"_HELLO?_"

Her impatience was outweighing any instinct for self preservation. She never was much for that whole "slow and steady" mentality. She was beautiful and charming and she was a princess. That's what her parents had always told her and why shouldn't she believe them? It was hard to counteract a lifetime of pampering. She stopped, hands on her hips, and threw back her head.

"HEY! Someone ANSWER ME!"

She followed this up with a frustrated shriek and a rather childish stomp of her foot, neither of which seemed to deliver results.

"This sucks," she grumped, and then, loudly, "Someone had better finish kidnapping me and do it right because I am going to _lose my mind!_"

"Well," a voice said, "if you insist."

Mimi stopped in her tracks, and all of her careless bravado left her, because there was a strange scraping and groaning ahead, and there were eyes glowing in the dark.

* * *

She woke up in a reasonably large cage in the corner of an even larger brick room, slumped awkwardly against two wide iron bars, blinking against a throbbing headache. She was not pleased.

"What the _hell._" She shuffled around gingerly until she was comfortable and ventured a glance out through the bars.

A fuzzy, newly hatched digimon blinked its big eyes at her and sneezed, which was odd, because it seemed to be entirely devoid of a mouth or nose. Just masses of baby-fine, royal blue fur. Mimi was overwhelmed with wanting to take it home and name it and let it sleep at the foot of her bed._._

"Oh, how sweet! Come here…" she reached out her hands, but the digimon shied away. "Oh, no, it's all right. I won't-"

"Get out of here!" a low, booming voice cut through Mimi's coaxing and the object of her attention was out the door before she had a chance to be startled. She raised her eyes to look at the new arrival, and was not entirely surprised to see Cherrymon standing against the wall, looking more absurd than threatening. There was something unsettling about a tree underground.

"Don't you need to photosynthesize or something?" she muttered, getting to her feet and smoothing out her clothes as best she could.

"Ah, yes. How clever." Cherrymon reached out a massive arm and plucked a golden key ring from the wall, twirling it around a bit of branchy finger. "Clever Mimi. You always were so smart. Or no…you really weren't, were you?"

Mimi thought of Matt, she tried to be strong. She swallowed the tightness in her throat and forced a laugh, nearly startling herself at its volume. She hoped she didn't sound as hysterical as she felt. "I'm familiar with your little games, Cherrymon. I'm supposed to start questioning myself now, right? Feeling weak, feeling expendable…that's hilarious. Tell me another one."

Cherrymon just stared, his eyes cold, and Mimi was afraid, but she only stared back. Perhaps he would kill her now. She knew he would do it eventually. She felt herself trembling and hoped he couldn't see. She thought she might not be able to stand much longer. And then the moment ended.

Cherrymon tossed the keys onto a table and left, ducking to fit through the door rather awkwardly, making scraping sounds as he went, the way tree branches will against a windowpane during a storm. Mimi sighed and felt herself uncoil. It was tiring, standing up for herself. She imagined how tired Tai must be, standing up for all of them every day.

* * *

Mimi was enjoying a Snow White sort of captivity. Cherrymon came by occasionally to remind her that he was still large and still mean, but his resident goons loved her with the innocent helplessness she was accustomed to and kept her as comfortable as they could. At first they had tried to menace her, but oh, they were just simple rookies who didn't know what side they were on, and a little sunshine in the dark went a long way.

She charmed a warm basin of water out of a pair of Garbagemon and rinsed the mud out of her hair and tattered mauve hoodie. She would have given anything for a real shower, but she was a prisoner after all. She could only expect so much.

Of course it was past her understanding that the comforts she enjoyed went far beyond what any normal person could have expected. It was her gift.

Days went by, and she was lonely. She wondered about the others. She supposed they were looking for her. They would assume she was alive. If there was one thing the Digidestined were good at it was denial. Or I suppose you could call that hope. She was finding it difficult to remain positive. What were they going to do, dig a hole? And she hated the thought of it-the seven of them charging into danger on her behalf.

She struck up quite a bond with a Floramon (though her shadow Deramon remained wary) and Mimi charged her with finding the furry navy-blue baby she'd fallen in love with. She'd learned that the last batch of hatchlings from Primary Village had been rounded up and brought here, but Cherrymon hadn't bothered to contain them and they ran wild, were often underfoot, and, Mimi imagined, starved for attention. As she often did, Mimi got much more than she bargained for, and after a brief period of shyness, had often found herself practically buried in apple-sized digimon of varying colors, all with downy-soft fur and wide blinking eyes. Of course her original find enjoyed a certain degree of favoritism, but they were all showered with endless affection, and listened with what appeared to be rapt attention to Mimi's stories. Though she had little evidence of their understanding, she drew comfort from their closeness.

Mimi closed her eyes and thought of home, of Odaiba and her spun-sugar life. She thought about summer camp and about what it feels like to find things you didn't know were missing. And she saw, in her mind's eye, a little girl with hair down to there and lips like a little red heart.

An incredibly silly little girl.

Mimi looked out through the bars of her cage at the faces of Deramon, Floramon, Gazimon...they were looking at her like she meant something, and when she imagined that girl, with her loud mouth and her pink dress, she barely recognized her.

Mimi smiled. "All right, kids, settle down. Now, where was I? The princess woke in the sand..."

* * *

_The princess woke in the sand, the remaining fragments of her dress hanging on her wet and ruined, and thought for a moment that perhaps it would be best to loll on the shore and wait for death. She had nearly drowned, she was lost, lonely...she looked terrible. She would never find her castle, and no one would ever be kind to her again without her dresses and carefully arranged hair. Her life was over. Wasn't it?_

_ Well. It probably was, but maybe she would just go see what was over that hill. She would just check, and then she would die._

_ The princess walked and walked, and for a long time, she didn't see much of anything. There were tall, tall trees; the tallest she'd seen, and sometimes in the distance, what must have been towns with their own castles and their own princesses, all lit up at night, and shimmering, mirage-like in the daytime. Worlds upon worlds, and how had she never known they were there?_

_Once she saw a long line of phone booths…do you know what phone booths are? No? Well, they let you talk to whoever you want, no matter where you are, no matter how far away. Well, almost anyone. Sometimes you lose someone for a long time, and they get so lost that not even a phone booth will do._

_

* * *

_

It was on the third day of her uneventful captivity that things started to get interesting, but Mimi was far too deep in conversation with a Gazimon she had named Franklin to sense any change in the atmosphere.

"So now, of course she's confused! She spent all those years holding on to him, but she's with Matt now, and she _does_ love him. Oh, she loves them _both. _Tragic, really, don't you think, Franklin, dear?"

"Yes, tragic," the Gazimon said in an offhand sort of way, and picked at a burr in his grey hair.

"Now, don't tug, you'll just make a little bald spot, and who wants that? Come here, let me get that for you."

The Gazimon's fingers stilled, and he looked up long enough to shoot Mimi an incredulous look, but all he found was her sincere and beaming face behind the bars.

"Well?" she said, and he was disgusted to find that he nearly moved forward in spite of himself.

Mimi laughed in a light, gleeful sort of way, and the Gazimon went back to ignoring her, but their almost companionable silence didn't last long-Cherrymon forced his bulk back through the small doorway and the soft glow went out of Mimi's eyes. She stood and adopted a cocky, defiant posture that would have been comical under different circumstances.

"Cherrymon. Great."

"Okay, Digidestined," Cherrymon said. "Time for a fieldtrip."

He nodded to the Gazimon curtly, and the guard came forward to unlock the cage, oddly afraid of meeting Mimi's eyes. The door swung open with a shriek, and Mimi ghosted past him.

"Thank you, Franklin," she said, kindly.

Cherrymon was already halfway down the hall, and Mimi followed him without a backward glance, her feet small and quiet on the dirty ground.

* * *

Mimi wasn't sure what she'd expected to see when she left the seclusion of her little room, turning the corner into a widening hallway, but all her bravado left her as she walked through the dim light, between rows of cages stacked to the rafters, and everything started to come clear. They still had allies. Their friends weren't all dead and gone as they'd feared, gone to the rolling limbo between data and form. No, they were here, in some kind of underground stronghold. It wasn't just an invading virus that was destroying the Digital World-it was the digimon who'd changed sides, turned against their kind, and picked what they thought was the winning battle.

It was ironic, really, because they'd also turned the tide.

Mimi walked the hall beneath Piximon's desert with her head held high, and she felt the hundreds of eyes on her, looking to her as a savior. As she passed, some bowed their heads, humbling her, making her understand more than ever before what is was to be Digidestined. She wasn't sure why she was chosen, of all the people in the world, over stronger people, braver people. She wasn't sure at all what she had to give.

But all of those hopeful faces, the Numamon, Koromon, Gekomon who murmured _Princess Mimi_ as she passed and brought tears to her eyes…they all knew there was something inside of her that made her different. She didn't have the heart to let them be proven wrong.

"Do you still think you're winning, Mimi?" Cherrymon said, his voice a smooth low chant, his back to her, branches swaying in an imaginary breeze. "Do you still think eight children can save the world? You have no chance. Your life was forfeit the moment you disappeared under the sand. Still feeling ready to fight, Child of Sincerity?"

Mimi looked away from the towering tree and looked instead into the faces of the caged digimon. All eyes were on her now, and this was a first. The others weren't here to form plans and take charge, and if she didn't fight, she would die, and so would all of these digimon. There was only one person who could save the day now, and it was her.

A new kind of strength awoke in her then, and she never was quite the same after that moment. You might say she grew up.

"Yes," Mimi said. "Oh yes. I'm ready."

* * *

Mimi hardly noticed the jarring impact of her right shoulder against the bars as Cherrymon tossed her into her cage and slammed the door behind her. She was completely shocked to find herself making a grab for Cherrymon as he stepped back from the bars, as if she could somehow overpower him with nothing more than her bare hands.

Franklin, who had leapt to his feet when they'd entered the room, seemed to be similarly startled by her behavior.

Cherrymon raised an appreciative eyebrow and almost smiled, but Mimi had no patience for games today.

"You've made a critical mistake," she said, "taking me on."

"Yes," Cherrymon said, and rolled his eyes. "I've heard you're the one to watch out for."

"Keep making jokes," Mimi said darkly, and a cruel smile played on her lips. "I can't wait to see the look on your face when you realize you're about to lose."

Cherrymon didn't say anything, just stared back at Mimi and saw that she was changed somehow.

"Yes," Mimi said, "I imagine it will look something like that."

As Cherrymon stormed out of the room, Mimi didn't waste a second. She whirled to face the silent Gazimon in the corner.

"Look, Franklin, I know how Gazimon are, and I know how much you love to pick the winning side, but this is not the time for taking the easy way out. You are aware, aren't you, that your entire dimension is actually sick and dying? You are _under attack, _and you've sided with this mindless virus just as quickly as you did with Etemon_, oh, I cannot stand this!_ Maybe pick the _right _side for once. I just can't stomach one more act of cowardice from the silly little minions of this world."

The Gazimon held her stare for a long time, and then called for a guard. Once he'd found himself a replacement, he left the room without looking back, and Mimi's legs were suddenly shaking too hard to support her weight. She sat down clumsily and let her head drop between her knees. Mimi felt powerful, yes, but she also felt completely, painfully alone.

* * *

_One day the princess came upon a narrow, overgrown path that veered away and into the woods, and she almost passed it by, but something told her that was wrong, so she stopped to consider. It was dark under the canopy, and thick, strange jungle noises echoed in the undergrowth, but she was the silliest kind of girl, and was only beginning to learn about fear. She pushed aside a leafy branch and took to the woods._

_ Now, a lot of adventures start in enchanted forests, but we'll bypass that, shall we, and get right to it? This story takes place in the dark and the damp. In the twisted nooks of underground. _

_

* * *

_

Hours later, though she must have been awake for at least a full day and her eyelids were sandy with exhaustion, sleep was the last thing on Mimi's mind. All she could see when she closed her eyes were rows of cages, frightened rookies…

All that time they'd been home, comfortable, living their small lives, and the Digital World was falling to pieces. Digimon who remained loyal to them were locked up like animals, and the civil war Tai feared was far more than a looming possibility-it had already begun. They were already losing.

Mimi felt eyes on her, and glanced up to find Deramon at the door, looking extremely uncomfortable. She turned to her guard-one of the Garbagemon-and he snarled, "Want me to get rid of this joker?"

Mimi sized up Deramon for a long moment and shook her head, as much to clear it as to answer the guard. "No, it's fine. Come on in."

"I brought you a blanket," Deramon said.

"Thank you," Mimi said wearily, "but I'm going to need so much more than that."

"That's what we figured," a new voice chimed in, and Mimi looked in time to see Franklin stride into the room with a fat ring of golden keys looped around one finger. "How's this for a start?"

There were five of them, not counting the babies. Franklin, Floramon, Deramon, and the pair of Garbagemon, who Mimi had begun to think of as Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Her very own, very brave bunch of rebels. Now she was getting somewhere. The navy powder puff, affectionately dubbed "Blue," and several of his peers kept watch, and Mimi sat close to the bars and bent over the stack of papers Floramon had spread across the dirty floor.

"What have we got here?" Mimi said.

"Floor plans," Deramon said, and flipped through a few pages, pointing out key locales. "This is where we are right now, here is the hallway with the cages, the tunnel you came through, the meeting hall and…the command center. Down past that…"

"That's where the monsters live," Tweedle Dee said.

Mimi traced the outline of the room with a slender fingertip. "The virus-born digimon?"

"Yes."

"A lot of them?"

She met Franklin's eye and sighed. Of course there were a lot of them.

"Right. And what's this here? Beyond the Hall of Horrors?"

"See these? Here, here, and…here?" Floramon pointed out several steep ramps. "These feed into the coliseum upstairs. Any one of them is a straight shot at the surface. Of course, there are the obvious obstacles."

Mimi grimaced. "Okay, what else have you got?"

"I thought you might find this interesting," Franklin said, and handed her the last three pages through the bars. There was the strangest little smile on his face…

"What's this?"

"A roster," Floramon said. "Every digimon in this compound who's loyal to your cause. I think you may know a few of them.

Floramon and Franklin shared a knowing glance, and Mimi raised the pages with shaking hands. There were hundreds of them. Gizamon, Monmon, Veemon…Raremon, ew, Bishopchessmon, Rosemon, Tento…

"Oh my God."

* * *

_ The princess waded through mud and thorn bushes and swarms of bugs, and she wasn't sure what she had come here for anymore. She missed her castle and her nice things. She missed her parents and the food and the bubble baths. She missed being comfortable but she kept pushing forward because something told her she had to, and what did she know? _

_ When she was so tired she could hardly stand and so scared that the slightest sound set her heart racing, a clearing opened up ahead of her and she found herself staring with some apprehension at the shrieking mouth of a cave. All the princess had ever heard about caves was that their deepest corners were home to ogres. Now ogres…they eat humans for breakfast lunch and dinner, and princesses…_

_

* * *

_

"…well, princesses tasted best of all because they-Oh, Franklin!"

Mimi started upright, abruptly jerked out of her fantasy land, and colorful balls of fluff toppled off of her, squeaking indignantly, much bolder now than they had been when they'd first met her. "Hush, kids. Give me a minute. Franklin…what on earth happened to your face?"

She walked to the bars and reached a hand through, her fingers grazing the mess of bruises that had replaced Franklin's left eye. He jumped back and stayed carefully out of reach. "Well…I found your friend Ogremon, like you asked."

Mimi clapped her hands. "Oh, wonderful! How is he?"

Franklin stared at her blankly with his one good eye. Mimi hid a smile behind her hand. "Yes, I see your point."

Franklin crossed the room and settled into his usual chair. Mimi could barely contain her excitement, but Franklin let her suffer a little longer.

"Well?" she finally said, looking like she was about to burst. "Is he in?"

Franklin rolled his eyes. Like everyone who'd ever crossed paths with her, he could not deny Mimi. He leaned back in his chair and wished he had some ice, at least.

"He's in."

Mimi squealed. Franklin smiled.

"Okay, so we're all clear on the plan? Everyone feeling comfortable? Deramon, you look ill."

Mimi, a relatively petite girl by human standards, and seemingly harmless, looked about a hundred feet tall to everyone present. She was no warrior, not in the traditional sense of the word, but as she commanded her small army, there was something fiercely majestic about her. She would have been startled if she could have seen herself at that moment.

"Good to go, boss," Deramon said, rather unconvincingly.

"Great, let me out of this cage. Floramon, go. Good luck. _Hurry._"

As Floramon stepped out without a word, Franklin turned the golden key, and the lock tumbled. Mimi crossed immediately to the crowd of furry, colorful babies. "Now, what are all of you going to do?"

Not having mouths, they remained silent, understandably, and stared.

"Stay hidden. Stay absolutely quiet and _do not move_ until I come get you. No heroics, understand?"

There was a chorus of enthusiastic blinking.

"That means you, Blue."

The herd of them bounded away, and Mimi waited until they were out of sight before turning to address the four remaining digimon. "Okay, Deramon, Tweedles Dee and Dum...I'm giving you a head start, but you need to move fast. And don't get caught, or the game's up. Okay, you know what you need to do. Get lost."

One of the Garbagemon saluted, and Mimi winked at Deramon as he stole a look over his shoulder. Their footfalls faded and she turned to look at Franklin.

"I guess it's just you and me, pal."

"Mmm," Franklin acknowledged vaguely, picking again at the burr on his arm.

"Here," Mimi said. "Let me get that."

Mimi sat down on the cold stone floor, patting a spot beside her, and the Gazimon sat down, quietly holding out his arm. Mimi's delicate fingers went to work on the matted bit of fur, and Franklin sat quietly, staring at a guttering torch in the hallway outside.

"About what I said earlier," she started.

"Forget it," Franklin said.

"When I called you a minion..." she added absently.

The corners of Franklin's mouth hinted at a smile. "Forget it."

"All right," Mimi said, and they waited in comfortable silence until their time was up.

* * *

_The princess didn't know what to do. She stared at the yawning mouth of the cave. Shade. Shelter. Ogres? Her mother and father had warned her about ogres, but they had also told her that the most important lesson she could learn was how to flutter her eyelashes "just so" and that had turned out to be of very little help since she'd fallen from the balcony. Hell, what did parents know anyways? She hiked up the remains of her pink gossamer dress and charged forward. Forward and down. Into the dark._

_

* * *

_

God, she was so far down the rabbit hole. The damp dirt walls seemed to be closing in, and running down this tunnel, stumbling, squinting in the darkness—oh, she felt like something small. Like she was being hunted. She felt the panic building in the back of her throat and ran faster. She was so afraid when she thought about what she had to do that for a moment she thought she couldn't bear it. And then she saw the cage up ahead and the hulking green shape inside, and she kept going because she couldn't let herself down again.

"Ogremon!" she gasped, and grabbed the bars to steady herself, fumbling in her pocket for the key.

"I didn't believe him, but the little worm wasn't lying" he said, surging to his feet. "You're really back. All of you?"

"Every one."

"It's true then. Everything's different now," he said fervently, and Mimi felt the crushing weight of responsibility.

The heavy copper key was cool against her palm, and as she tried to insert it in the keyhole her hand shook, embarrassingly, and she cursed under her breath. The key clanged against the opening loudly, and the lock finally tumbled. "Okay, we don't have much time. Franklin went over the plan, I assume, but to recap we...we ah..." She felt Ogremon's eyes on her and felt utterly small and unprepared. She looked up.

"Mimi," he said, his tusks reflecting torchlight. It was sort-of terrifying.

"Yeah?" she said, rather hopelessly, and swung the cage door wide.

"You're doing fine."

"Oh," she said, and laughed weakly, scrubbing her hands over her face and leaving her hair disheveled. "Thanks."

"Touching," Cherrymon said, his voice booming down the hall. "Really, it gets me right here."

Mimi looked up to see him bang a branch against his chest, indicating his heart. He was flanked by two enormous digimon, both sickly grey and only mostly there, in that way of the virus-born digimon. They seemed conscious but unintelligent, and out of phase, like they had one foot somewhere else. There would be no reasoning with them.

"Cherrymon," Mimi said. "Um...hello."

"You're going to be so sorry," Cherrymon said. And Ogremon tried to fight them, but it was no use.

* * *

_ There were endless twists and turns, dripping stalactites, pools of glowing water and phosphorescent creatures skittering, always just around the bend or out of the corner of her eye. The princess walked for hours and the floor inclined steadily downward. At times the cave tightened and she crawled. The deeper she went the lighter she felt, her feet barely made a sound. Down, down._

_

* * *

_

"Oh," Mimi said mostly to herself, "to be anywhere but here."

She felt a trickle of blood ooze slowly down her arm and tore her eyes away from the rolling, screaming crowd to look up at the metal cuffs around her wrists. She was nearly tall enough to place the balls of her feet firmly on the stone altar below, but nearly wasn't enough and she was pretty sure that there was something wrong with one of her shoulders, and _what had she been thinking_. She twisted painfully to look over her shoulder and take in the comforting sight of Ogremon's firm back against hers. Chained up similarly and a little worse for wear, he had his eyes fixed coldly on Cherrymon, and the familiar Gazimon, Franklin, cringing at his side.

This seemed bad. Of course, she'd been in bad situations before, but this had a particular ring of disaster to it.

The gritty sound of Cherrymon's branches on the stone steps behind her slowly registered in the back of Mimi's mind and she braced herself against a palpable wave of fear. He was climbing the altar. Zero hour. She continued to face stoically forward and waited.

"Bet you're wishing you hadn't switched sides about now, eh Ogremon?" Cherrymon said, and laughed.

"Hm...why do you say that?" Ogremon said.

"Because I'm going to kill you," Cherrymon said. "Was that not clear?"

Mimi saw movement far off to the left in a formerly empty doorway—the carved out opening to the rows and rows of cages containing the loyal digimon. It was Deramon. When he saw that she was looking he stopped waving his arms and gave her a thumbs up, and she nodded back once, very slowly.

"Not really," Ogremon said.

"Now," Mimi said, quietly.

"What?" said Ogremon and Cherrymon simultaneously.

"Now," Mimi said, almost inaudibly, her voice quavering. She _so_ wasn't built for this, careful timing, crazy risks...why couldn't Tai have been pulled down here? No...that was a horrible thing to think, after...but he'd have liberated the entire damn stronghold in 15 minutes! Cherrymon and the others would carry him out on their shoulders and shine his shoes and...don't get hysterical, Mimi. Deep breaths. She was trying to think like Tai. Think of the plan. She was supposed to wait for Floramon, but things were unraveling, Cherrymon was too close, she was too scared, it felt like they had to move...now. Right now, before she completely lost her nerve, "Now, now! Franklin, now!"

"Wait..." Cherrymon said. "Who?"

* * *

_ A wall of winking diamonds. A limestone formation. She went without abandon, leaving her dress to line the nests of the small cave monsters and continuing in her white cotton shift. She was almost always crouching now. Very little light left, and she felt the walls with her hands, smooth, sometimes wet. She was coming to the deepest place, the center._

_

* * *

_

_"You want me to _what_?" Franklin said, amidst gasps from the rainbow of baby digimon looking on._

_ "I want you to go and tell Cherrymon that I've broken out and I'm probably headed to Ogremon's cage, that I've taken your keys, why are you looking at me like that?" _

_ "I'm sorry, it's just that this plan is insane."_

_ Mimi waited for the chorus of muttered agreement to die down. "So you'd rather we just creep out in the dead of night at leave it at that."_

_ "Well..." said Franklin, looking around at Deramon, Floramon, and the Garbagemon. They all looked rather horrified. "Yes."_

_ "Okay, but I don't want to just escape, I want to send a message."_

_ "A message."_

_ "Yes! Okay? This dimension is being slowly strangled by a virus from who knows where, and half of the population of server has allied with it! I need every single digimon here to know that they don't have to side with this virus to survive, that the Digidestined are still powerful, and for that I need all eyes on me. So let him try to make an example of me, and I'll take it from there, but do not expect me to sneak out the back door. I'm not doing that."_

_ Franklin rocked back on his heels and let out a long pensive breath. "All right, Mimi. But I want you to know that we're all going to die."_

_ "Don't be such a worry wart, Franklin. No one likes a worry wart."_

_

* * *

_

Before Cherrymon had time to react, Franklin had scampered past him, unceremoniously scaled Ogremon like a tree, and drawn back a clawed paw, poised to bring it down on the chains.

"What the hell is going on here?" Cherrymon bellowed, lurching forward belatedly. "Gazimon, get down here! What do you think you're doing?"

Caught up in the moment, feeling energized and important and a _part _of something for once, Franklin shot Cherrymon an uncharacteristic grin and bellowed, "Picking a _side!_"

His claws came down and the sound of shrieking metal rang out in the cavernous room as the chains severed, dumping one large green digimon and one slender girl rather roughly on the raised stone altar with a resounding crash and accompanying cloud of dust. There was a stunned silence as the entire crowd paused to take in this new development.

And then Ogremon surged to his feet, charged at Cherrymon, and threw the first punch in the biggest brawl the Digital World had ever seen.

* * *

_The princess climbed down into the deep pulsing center of the world, a cave smoothly carved out like a drop of water. And everywhere around her points of hot green light broke through, warming her skin, taking her through to some other place._

___She felt new._

_She felt complete, here at the end. _


	13. War Games

In-Between-Time

Chapter Thirteen: War Games

a/n: Please just know that the apprehension I feel at posting this is truly excruciating. And also that I haven't forgotten you.

* * *

Near the heart of the labyrinth, a quarter mile under the sand, Izzy stilled, distracted by the sudden grinding crash of battle, and just like that Tai was halfway down the hall, running towards trouble. The sound of his quickly retreating footsteps finally registered, and Izzy looked up sharply, spotting Tai just as he disappeared around the next corner. _Damn it_. Feeling a fine grit sliding between the stone floor and the soles of his shoes, Izzy flailed a bit for the loose left strap on his backpack, shoved his arm through it, and charged after Tai, settling the bag so it knocked gently against the center of his back.

"Tai, will you- _wait!"_ Izzy called down the long stone corridor, squinting into the cloud of thick, grey dust Tai had kicked up.

"Catch up!" he heard Tai yell back, faraway, and he rolled his eyes, approaching the corner with a burst of speed.

Improbably, Tai was waiting for him at the bend, and they would've had a nasty collision if Tai hadn't managed to spring mostly out of the way, grabbing Izzy's arm to keep his balance. They froze like that, both breathing hard and looking exasperated, until Tai said _come on, _tugging the arm he still had hold of, and they took off again, hurtling towards the building commotion.

For Izzy, the past few days were a blur of hastily memorized sequences of left and right. He'd gotten full schematics of the extensive tunnel system beneath the sand from Gennai and buried himself in them immediately, but making sense of it all took time, and recon took longer, and he felt constantly out of breath at the thought of Mimi's fingers slipping through his. The memory recurred with relentless clarity, haunting him the way those last chaotic seconds in the Digital World had all those years ago; Tai just out of reach, the resigned look in his eyes, the carnival tilt of the trolley, the unresponsive controls under his fingers.

_I'll fix it,_ he'd said, and for three years he woke up with those words ricocheting off the hard edges of nightmares, a vast and impossible promise that ate away at him by degrees.

He could tell by the gentle way the others were handling him that he must be getting that wild look again, but Tai, nonplussed, just hunkered down next to him, poked him in the ribcage with a bony elbow, pressed an unwrapped granola bar into his wildly gesturing hand, _never_ wondered whether they'd pull it off, only ever wondered _how_.

Izzy just sat back and wondered how he'd ever managed to hold on to faith like that.

* * *

"Left fork," Tai said, veering off without waiting for an answer, but Izzy pulled up short.

"Right's quicker."

"Um...no," Tai said, looking over his shoulder at Izzy as he gestured down the corridor with his weapon of choice; Matt's frying pan. "We've been through this. Left goes-"

"Left goes through that weird room with all the holes in the floor. If you fall in one again-"

"If I fall in one _again?" _Tai said, looking almost comically affronted. "I'm not going to fall in one _again, _Izzy,who falls in the same hole twice?"

Izzy just looked at him.

A staggering rumble ran through the floor and a fine rain of dust settled around them as they both went sprawling. The frying pan clanged against the wall some few feet away and spun listlessly until it lost momentum.

Izzy, flat on his back, closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. Tai sighed. "Fine. Let's go right."

Tai had applied himself to the labyrinth of tunnels with a laser focus that Izzy wouldn't have expected from him before, arguing tirelessly about strategy and poring over the maps Izzy sketched on the outer wall of the coliseum long after everyone else was at least pretending to be asleep.

He'd also done most of the reconnaissance himself, shrugging off a concussion in the wake of his run in with Dokugumon, disappearing for hours at a time, barely avoiding being spotted by patrols of minions on several occasions, which eventually led to a shouting match with Matt that was almost comforting in its familiarity.

The one thing Matt glaringly declined to shout at Tai about was the way he refused to acknowledge his sullen, withdrawn, and intermittently glowing sister as she haunted their general vicinity. In fact, everyone was doing their best to ignore the tension between Tai and Kari—he so obviously thought they were losing her to the worrying _otherness; _to her sudden, unflinching ruthlessness and the way she blinked slowly when addressed as if she'd been somewhere else_. _

"Tai, do you think Kari is...um..." Izzy'd tried, once, but he didn't miss the way Tai's eyebrows drew together sharply and he let it go.

"Let's just...get Mimi back first," Tai said, quietly, a few minutes later, when Izzy had long since moved on. And then, "You going down there with me?"

"Yeah, Tai," he said easily, watching TK watch Kari, and figured they'd better _hurry-_

_"-up, we're almost there!"_ Tai bellowed over the now-deafening sounds of fighting, and Izzy was jolted back to the present, rounding that last corner with Tai and barreling into the gaping central chamber of the maze just as an explosion rocked the room, throwing off a hail of gravel. They both flinched back, and Tai, who was slightly ahead of him, threw an arm up to protect his face as Izzy skidded to a stop just shy of knocking him over.

"You okay?" Izzy gasped. The ground shook.

"Fine," Tai said, breathless, and glanced quickly over his shoulder, presumably to check on Izzy. He had blood in his eyebrow, and Izzy was going to tell him so, but then he spotted Mimi and everything else went straight out the window.

The room was vast, with a cavernously high ceiling. It was packed with Digimon, and scattered throughout the crowd were the twisted, colorless creatures that mimicked them; the invading force, similar in shape and form to the Digimon, but with black, dead eyes and a dim, brainless tendency towards violence. Slightly more than half of the Digimon were doggedly fighting back the monsters, and that half looked to Mimi.

She was standing on the raised stone platform at the center of the room, two sets of heavy chains swinging above her head, thick metal cuffs hanging from both of her wrists. Her hair flew around her in a soft pink cloud as she turned to shout an order to the group of Bakemon by the far wall. Izzy watched as they swarmed over a struggling, wailing Cherrymon. A low, strange roar shook dust down from the ceiling, and Izzy followed the sound to find Ogremon at Mimi's back, grappling with something huge and empty that blurred at the edges. Mimi was loosely hefting a large tree branch, feet planted wide and eyes alert, and Izzy realized with a jolt that it was one of Cherrymon's _limbs_. A writhing inkspot with a gaping mouth full of teeth got too close, and Mimi swung the heavy club without batting an eyelash; a flashing, scary grin lighting up her dirt-smudged face. She stepped into the swing, leaving the center of the platform wide open, and in the place she'd been standing was _Tentomon_, hovering near Mimi and deftly picking off anything that approached the steps with a crackling bolt of electricity.

Tentomon. Alive.

Izzy cut a glance to his left and found Tai's expression stuck somewhere between slack-jawed surprise and startled laughter as a high, welcome whine of power joined the din, and Tentomon started to glow. Mimi glanced back, startled, and Izzy saw the realization dawn on her face before she whirled and scanned the crowd, spotting them almost immediately. Izzy felt his hand come up in a lame little wave before he managed to stop it and Mimi's grin went wide and familiar.

He tried not to imagine what he must look like, standing in the middle of the pandemonium, one hand raised absently and then forgotten there, choking on relief.

"Tentomon digivolve to..."

Tai spun the frying pan in his hand, a smooth, unconscious motion, and bumped shoulders with Izzy companionably.

"Let's go," he said, and plunged ahead, into the parting crowd.

"...Kabuterimon!"

"Okay," Izzy said, dazed, and followed him.

* * *

"You good?" Tai said over his shoulder, falling into a defensive stance on Mimi's unprotected side, and Izzy hung back, reaching out to rest his hand on the broad plane of Kabuterimon's face as he landed and leaned in close. Kabuterimon rumbled Izzy's name with a humbling reverence, bending so that Izzy could scramble up, stepping into the smooth proffered palm and settling in between his buzzing wings.

"Yeah," Mimi breathed, and Izzy glanced up in time to see the way they were grinning at each other sidelong. "What's the plan?"

"We've got the two Megas topside," Tai said. "Let's see who wants to go quietly before we call in the cavalry."

"That tunnel is the most direct route to the surface," Izzy called down to them, pointing, and they both looked to the dark arch across the room, barely visible beyond a dozen skirmishes. "We need to clear it."

"You want to do something about that?" Tai said, and Izzy nodded.

"Hang on," Kabuterimon said, and blasted a wide swath. Digimon on both sides of the fight scrambled to get out of his way. Izzy bent low, flattening himself against Kabuterimon's shell, buffeted by wind, eyes watering. The tunnel opening approached with unnerving speed. It looked impossibly small.

_"Listen up!"_ Tai was shouting somewhere behind them, and Izzy focused on his voice as Kabuterimon skimmed the surface of what appeared to be a giant, pulsing oil-slick, covered in bubbles...no...hundreds of blinking eyes. "The Digidestined are operating out of these tunnels now. If you're still here when my friends upstairs join the party, _you'd better be on the right side._ If you'd like to step out, Kabuterimon here will show you the door."

Something white—an unnerving absence of color with a cavernous mouth—reached out blindly for Izzy, opening wide, opening up, turning itself inside out. Izzy looked away, looked back, memorizing the sight of them up on the altar, Tai and Mimi and the army of monsters pressing in from every direction.

Hundreds of eyes were fixed on Tai. The silence was deafening as the battle ground to a halt under the pure force of something dangerous in his expression. And the last thing Izzy heard before the dizzying, stomach-churning mad dash for the surface was Mimi's voice like a bell, hard and musical and cutting across the silence.

"I wouldn't make him ask again."

* * *

"She was _laughing_," Tai said with an air of wonder, "and _waving one of Cherrymon's arms around like a club_ while the Bakemon just tore him to shreds! His face. You guys. His _face_."

He trailed off with an expansive, open-palmed shrug like _I have no words._

"_Tai_," Mimi said, sounding embarrassed, but she still had the knotty branch in hand, propped jauntily against one shoulder, and the reckless tilt of her chin was undeniably proud.

"_Mimi_," Tai said. "You're a _maniac._"

"Well, I just thought," she said, meeting his eyes evenly as a pretty blush spread across her high, fine cheekbones, "what would Tai do?"

"You'll get into all kinds of trouble that way," Matt said fondly, straightening from where he'd propped himself against the wall to rest his wrenched ankle. He punched Tai lightly on the arm before hobbling off, presumably to find his brother and Kari as they'd disappeared again.

"Come on," Sora said, saving Tai and Mimi from the silence. "Let's see if Izzy's managed to get ahold of Gennai."

They picked their way across the now mostly empty central chamber of the underground maze, which only an hour or so before had been the site of a chaotic mass-exodus, climbing over a piles of rubble and tangled detritus, smiling or nodding somewhat awkwardly at the occasional Floramon or Gekomon who paused their cleanup efforts to stare.

The battle had gone overwhelmingly their way, but they had no illusions about what was waiting for them at the end of the road. Not just a monster or two, not just the usual megalomaniacs, but the systematic destruction of the Digital World. An invading virus that would leave nothing in its path, remaking the Digital World in black and white, forcing out the Digimon until they were endangered, and then extinct.

Failure was unthinkable, they could all agree on that.

It meant the end of everything.

* * *

Matt caught up with Sora on the dusty stone altar, where she'd found herself pushing a broom, surrounded by no less than a dozen Bakemon.

"Well, it's all in the past," she was saying. "Forgive and forget, right?"

One of the Bakemon was wringing his hands. It was more…creepy…than contrite.

Sora's hair was caught up in a red bandana. It clashed horribly, endearingly. Matt came up the steps, careful, leaning on a makeshift cane, and raised his eyebrows.

"No, really, it's fine," Sora told the Bakemon, dry, glancing at Matt. "Someone's always…trying to eat us."

Matt swallowed a smile.

"Soramon is forgiving!" one of the Bakemon exclaimed, and they all pressed around her, humming.

"It's just Sora," she said, stumbling back.

"Sora is just! Just Sora! Just Sora!"

"Okay, that's..."

"Just Sora!"

"…nevermind," Sora said, sighing, and tentatively clasped one of their outstretched hands. The Bakemon, seeming pacified by this, swarmed off like a school of fish. A cool, moaning wind followed in their wake.

"Wow," Sora said, rubbing her hand on her jeans. "Yikes."

"Here," Matt said, amused, and handed her a bowl of what looked like stew.

"Thanks," Sora said. "Come on, sit down."

She set the broom aside and perched on the top step and Matt settled in next to her. They watched the Bakemon drift around the room, terrorizing the other, gentler Digimon until Ogremon lost his patience and shooed them off. Sora swirled her stew around the bowl.

"What?" Matt said finally, leaning sideways to bump her shoulder.

Sora frowned into her food. "Are we crazy to think this can work? Floramon, Deramon, Bakemon…bunch of, ugh…" She looked around conspiratorially, "…_Numamon_. Mimi's got that Gazimon following her around like a shadow. Franklin. Matt…I think we're crazy. This is crazy."

"Oh, come on," Matt said. "They're just minions. They're not dangerous. Eat your food."

Sora scooped up a brownish cube from the bowl.

"Everyone in this room has tried to kill us," she said, gloomy, with her mouth full.

"Tai talked them around," Matt said, and Sora snorted.

Mimi breezed in then, toting Gomamon, who looked half-awake at best.

"Hey, Izzy's ready!" she shouted across the room, and everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and rushed the door. They parted around her like a pink rock in a stream. Sora waved. Mimi grinned and disappeared into the crowd.

"So, Mimi's way crazier than we thought," Sora said. Matt hummed in agreement and levered himself upright.

"Hey, what is this stuff anyway?" Sora said around a mouthful of food.

"I have no idea," Matt said.

"Okay, great," Sora said, polishing it off, and went after him.

* * *

They were calling it the war room.

Izzy's computer was wired into a towering monitor across from the door. Gennai loomed large, surveying the assembly. Off to the right, Izzy leaned against the brick, waiting. Tentomon was at his feet and Tai at his shoulder.

The small room was far beyond capacity, but the crowd of Digimon made space for Matt and Sora, and they crossed to the front, returning Tai's warm smile, finding a place next to Joe. Mimi joined them in short order with Gomamon still curled in her arms. TK and Kari came in last and stood at the back, and Tai turned minutely towards Izzy to hide his reaction.

"Are we worried about this?" Mimi said quietly to the three of them within earshot, her expression carefully bland.

"I'll talk to him," Matt said, and when Joe sent him a pointed sidelong look, Matt rolled his eyes. "We're capable of having a civil—"

"All right everyone, let's get started," Tai said loudly, his voice cutting through the hushed murmurs, and all eyes went to the front.

"…conversation," Matt muttered.

"Yeah, all right," Joe said.

"Greetings!" Gennai said, in that chuckling, reedy voice, eyes glinting with something mysterious, in the usual way. A sound of acknowledgement went up from the crowd. "It's no secret that the Digital World is dying. That's why they're here."

He opened his arms, gesturing at the Digidestined. "They always come when they're needed. Well, we certainly need them now."

Izzy reached down and punched a command into the keyboard. The screen split down the center, Gennai on the left, a map of the Digital World on the right.

"We are…here," Izzy said, pointing at the miniature image of a coliseum on the screen. "Formerly the headquarters of Cherrymon and his band of…associates."

Tai huffed a quiet laugh.

Izzy ignored him. He pointed to a spot some distance north, in the center of the desert. "And this is Piximon's Oasis," he tapped the screen and it erupted into a tangled jungle, stretching on for miles. "If you know where to look."

"Gennai has identified the Oasis as the weak spot between dimensions," Tai said, pushing off from the wall and stepping forward. "This is where the virus first crossed over. And it's where we'll need to go to send it back."

"I've been working on an antivirus. Sort of a…software patch," Izzy said. "Delivered to this spot, it should be able to eradicate the virus and reset the Digital World."

"What about Primary Village?" Mimi said.

"Not lost," Tai said.

"And the monsters?" one of the Gekomon asked.

"We believe that severing their connection to their own dimension will…well…" Izzy glanced at Tai.

"They'll die," Tai said, and crossed his arms.

The silence was brief.

Ogremon cracked his knuckles. "When do we leave?"

"You're not coming," Izzy said. "We—the Digidestined—we're leaving tomorrow."

The outcry was immediate, and in the small space, deafening. Tai was instantly at the edge of the crowd, arms outstretched, shouting for attention.

"Hey! Listen! We need you here," he said. "Ogremon, this is home base, and you need to hold it in case this doesn't work. If we fail, you're going to need an army to take back this dimension. Last line of defense. That's you."

"You're only human," Ogremon said, gruff, his eyes going automatically to Mimi.

"Hasn't stopped us before," she said.

"Things have changed," Ogremon said. "You've got four Digimon, that's half your team."

Gennai, who had watched all of this placidly from the glowing monitor, shook his head. "Six."

Izzy and Tai shared a conspiratorial glance. Sora found that her heart was pounding.

"Oh," Joe said, looking at Izzy, who nodded once, his eyes crinkling at the corners.

Tai leveled his gaze on Matt and Sora. "Six," he repeated, and he couldn't stop the grin spreading across his face. "On account of two old friends meeting us halfway."

* * *

The room had mostly emptied out by the time Matt approached Tai.

"Can we…?" he said, gesturing towards the door.

"Sure," Tai said, and followed him out.

The sun was down. Up in the bleachers, they were perfectly alone. Matt took off his shoe and put up his foot, sighing.

"How bad is it?" Tai said, eyeing the swollen ankle.

"You're not leaving me here."

Tai looked up sharply. "Of course not. Jesus."

"Sorry," Matt said shaking his head. "I'm just…"

Tai waved the apology away. "Forget it."

"Tai," Matt said, and then hesitated, studying his friend's profile.

"You want to talk about Kari." Tai stared off across the coliseum blankly.

"Yeah."

"She's not in control," Tai said. "There's something bigger at work here. The Digital World is using her. And I want to protect her, but…"

He trailed off with a frustrated sound.

"But we need her," Matt said.

"We won't win without her." Tai buried his head in his hands, leaning forward. "She's my sister, Matt. What if—what if she…"

Matt dropped his hand casually between Tai's shoulders. "Tai, if you want to send her home, everyone will understand. Izzy can do it tonight."

"We'll lose," Tai said miserably.

"The software patch—"

"Izzy doesn't think it'll be strong enough without something to boost the signal," Tai said. "They're counting on us."

"We can find another way," Matt said.

Tai straightened, and Matt let his arm rest along the seat behind him.

"There's no other way."

"Fine, but Tai," Matt said. "Listen to me. No matter what happens, this time we're all going home."

Tai turned to look at Matt, and he didn't believe him, it was obvious, but the toughness was back in the set of his jaw. Matt waited.

"Okay," Tai said finally, turning to stare out into the dark again, leaning subtly back against Matt's arm.

"Okay," Matt said.

The night sky was breathtaking, out in the desert. Cloudless, endless. An impossible riot of stars. Matt tipped his head back. He felt small, but being in the Digital World always made him feel small.

"You know that thing they say in stories? About unfamiliar constellations?" Matt said. "It really is strange, isn't it? I didn't think it would bother me."

"Well, stare at them long enough and you forget the old ones," Tai said, flashing him a quick smile.

"Oh, right," Matt said, feeling disoriented.

He'd forgotten, for a moment, that Tai had ever been away.


End file.
